how to make a character grab/hold something?

[bluedragon128]

There are a few ways to do this. One would be keying the visibility and having mulitple objects. Another way is constraints, Maya 5 has added a new one called the Parent.
To test it out create two locator move these apart.
1. Create a sphere, select one locator and then the sphere to a point and orient constaint to it.
2. Select the other locator and the sphere and do the same.
3. Next create a cylinder, this will act like a hand, place that over the first locator, select the cylinder then the locator and do a Parent constraint.
4. Now all you have to do is animate the point and orient weights on the sphere and it will follow the locators.
I used a stepped curve on the weights of the constraints, that allowed it to switch straight over to the first locator when the cylinder passed over the sphere. Also if you dont have Maya 5 on highend3d there is a script called Grab(I think that is the one). Some people have said that this does work too. http://www.highend3d.com/maya/mel/?group=melscripts&section=animation

[dirkusrhombas]

If you want a free video tutorial then u might wanna take a peek at this .....

ttp://www.gnomononline.com/tutorial.php?category_id=7

I dont know about the script you mentioned but I hope this helps.

[MaTaDoR]

thanks for the reply guys im trying them both right now, the video one is really difficult to follow for someone who's not too technical minded tho, geez.. lol

[MaTaDoR]

trying the visibility keying :)

[dirkusrhombas]

Cool ... i found that tut a bit hard to get my head around the first time i watched it as well .... ps good to see im not the only one pulling a 'all nighter ' lol

zzzzzzz

[(B-HOLM)]

hmm maybe using some kinda expression would be possible...
like if there's a hand moving in then z direction then maybe if the hand is at the spot that the thing is located or higher, then the object's z = the hands z direction...

I know I'm kinda unclear..but hopefully someone'll understand and then say something like "that's not possible since blah blah blah" or "cool idea you got there" :P

just my 50 øre

[Milho]

Originally posted by bluedragon128
There are a few ways to do this. One would be keying the visibility and having mulitple objects. Another way is constraints, Maya 5 has added a new one called the Parent.
To test it out create two locator move these apart.
1. Create a sphere, select one locator and then the sphere to a point and orient constaint to it.
2. Select the other locator and the sphere and do the same.
3. Next create a cylinder, this will act like a hand, place that over the first locator, select the cylinder then the locator and do a Parent constraint.
4. Now all you have to do is animate the point and orient weights on the sphere and it will follow the locators.
I used a stepped curve on the weights of the constraints, that allowed it to switch straight over to the first locator when the cylinder passed over the sphere. Also if you dont have Maya 5 on highend3d there is a script called Grab(I think that is the one). Some people have said that this does work too. http://www.highend3d.com/maya/mel/?group=melscripts&section=animation


Sorry bluedragon, but I think you use the parent constraint in a wrong way. You use it to parent the cylinder to a locator which could be achieved with a default parenting.

The task of parent constraint is to replace point and orient constraints.

So if you want to make a hand grab something make it like this:

Create a cube, this will be the Hand
Create a Sphere, the Object to carry around
Create a Locator, this will be used to animate the free movement of the sphere

Now select the Locator and then the Sphere and create a Parent Constraint

First move the "hand" cube in a position near to the ball as if it holds it.
Then do the same with the "hand" cube: select the cube and then the sphere and create a parent constraint

Now select the Sphere: You should notice two new atributes: Locator W0 and Cube W1 both set to 1

Set the Cube W1 to 0

Now you can animate the locator and swap the W1/W0 values whenenver the Sphere needs to come/stick to the hand.

[bluedragon128]

Just tested out your way of doing it. Works great. Not sure about the way I explained, I have used this way before, found it off of some tutorial explaining how to pick up objects. Been using a couple of nice scripts off of Highend3d called Grab v1.0 and Grabanim v1.0 also you need snaps v1.0 for grabanim(all three of these scripts are made by Big Idea Productions). These work great in Maya 4.5. As you can see there are many ways to skin a cat in Maya.(No offense to cats.)

[Kaiser_Sose]

Alex goes over this well in Contraints I

He shows how to pick something up, throw it, and how to jump on a moving object

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