CGTalk - Simple animation

michelverheughe

12-28-2009, 07:14 AM

New to the forum, this is my first post.
My employer asked me to purchase and learn 3ds Max 9, to create and animate maritime training videos. The first subject is: Helicotper to Ship Operations (more and more marine pilots are boarding vessels by helicopter).
I purchased a couple of helicopter and vessel models and try now to animate them in a "world" of sea and sky. I added a few objects like, the landing platform on the ship and a pilot in the helicopter. Then I try to animate a winchman being hoisted down. A simple biped linked to a line, linked to the helicopter. How do I animate the wire going down? If I scale the line, the biped goes miles away.

Sorry, this is certainly a very simple question; please re-direct me if there is a better place to ask it. I have previous experience from Blender, LightWave, Flash, etc. but ... 3ds Max feels very heavy and not user-friendly. In addition, I am Norwegian and 62 years old so ... I am slow, very slow! ;-)

Cheers,
Michel

EricChadwick

01-02-2010, 09:21 AM

Yes, this is the wrong place. This section is for you to post a solution not a question.

But to solve your problem...
1. Make a 2-vertex line, starting at the winch and going down to the Biped.
2. Create a dummy helper where the line is supposed to connect to the Biped.
3. To the line add a Spline Select modifier and select the bottom vertex (nearest the Biped).
4. Add a Linked Xform modifier to the line, and choose the dummy as the control object.

Now you can animate the dummy and the line will always stretch to fit the distance.

michelverheughe

01-02-2010, 10:51 AM

Thank you for your reply, Eric. I will try your method that I barely understand. It shows how much of a rookie I am. Please could you tell me where I can ask simple 3ds Max beginner questions on any forum on the internet? I am in desperate need of help. My colleagues are all seafarers with no understanding of the graphical challenges they ask me. To avoid cluttering this forum, you may answer me direct at michel[at]online.no

Thanks in advance and a great new year 2010 to anyone reading this.

Michel Verheughe
Norway

PS: [at] is @; a cheap spam invalidator.

EricChadwick

01-02-2010, 11:36 PM

Not a problem at all. The Autodesk 3ds max (http://forums.cgsociety.org/forumdisplay.php?f=6) section is a good place to ask 3dsmax-specific questions, even beginning questions. The Help file in 3dsmax is also an excellent resource, I would suggest referring to it often, as it can answer many questions more quickly than a forum reply. The tutorials that come on the 2nd DVD are also very helpful.

michelverheughe

01-03-2010, 09:26 AM

My mistake, Eric, I was one step down too far in the structure of the sub-forums. Thanks for correcting me.
Regarding the Help files of the program, this is where I go first, of course. It tells me what are the numerous parameters and buttons of the menus but it doesn't tell me why I can't achieve what I want to! ;-)

Cheers,
Michel

PS: The moderator of this sub-forum may delete this thread now.

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