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View Full Version : Help animating a carboard box??.. sounds stupid don't it?

kassinopious
09-16-2007, 05:03 PM
Hi folks was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction here, i have just got a new job within the corrugated packaging industry (cardboard box industry to those who want to be blunt about things :P ) but i was wondering what the best way to go about animating the process of a box being folded from a net into the finished product would be? I use 3dsmax, and was thinking maybe adding bone structures to the mesh but there must be an easier way to do it than that mustn't there??

If i wasnt clear enough in the paragraph above.. what i'm trying to do is animate how the box folds together from the flat piece of cutout card they recieve to the finished produt that they put on display.

Any help, links or info would be greatly appreciated.

Dan
jamesylvester
09-16-2007, 08:17 PM
hi, im a bit of a noob so theres probably a better way but i would make each panel of the box a seperate object/mesh. then go in the heirarchy tab and select "affect pivot only" then move the pivot to where the fold would be, then when you rotate the object it should look like its folding. then you can just animate the rotation.

sorry if that doesnt make sense. bones would probably work but this way seems much easier to me
kassinopious
09-17-2007, 09:48 PM
hi, im a bit of a noob so theres probably a better way but i would make each panel of the box a seperate object/mesh. then go in the heirarchy tab and select "affect pivot only" then move the pivot to where the fold would be, then when you rotate the object it should look like its folding. then you can just animate the rotation.

sorry if that doesnt make sense. bones would probably work but this way seems much easier to me

thanks mcclane.. thats the idea i had initially, however it wouldn't be a seamless model which is essental to the specifications i'm having to work with.

At my workplace they have a piece of software called kasemake which is capable of creating the 3d models and animations i would like to make.. however the renderer it uses is useless and it has the exportation abilities of a haggered mule so i really wanted to make the most of the capabilities of 3dsmax + mental ray which i own the license for.

Is there not a mesh deform type function I may be able to use? I've trie adding a simple bone structure to a box and the folds just dont look realistic.


***As a final question, what software is required to export an animation to an ineractive flash application (like you see with 3d view mobile phones on network websites?)
kigosa
09-22-2007, 05:28 AM
hi,
this is just some theory, i haven't tested this before, but aslong as you splitt the progress so diffrent takes, you could go with some bend modifier. adjust the limits to your folding edge. at the bend sublevel menu you can perfectly fit the center and gizmo to your folded faces.


hmm.. now that i think about it, since you can attach any count of modifier you should be able to get a full fold done in one shot.

hope this helps you out... i am trying to do this, sounds like fun. Used that other method mcclane mentioned in an animation of mine: Monitor Build-Up (http://www.ikonia.de/anim/xp17_final.avi)
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