Rigging

#1

Take a look at the image and please tell me how can i make the roof go down with a drag of only one object?? The roof is capable of converting, so i only have to rig it. OR, how can i connect the window with the rest of the roof? Parent something? Please guide me through.

http://www.vertexstudios.net/images/1.jpg

#2

I might suggest just using a joint system.
There isn’t any one definitive way to rig it but three bones should do it. If you look at the pic I gave you, hopefully you can make sense of my arrows;

1- Bones at rest, look at it like this is a side view. The bones are
placed with the top closed. Then you can Rigid Bind them to
each piece. Try and setup the bones so that they all will rotate
in one plane, like X, for example.

2- When it rotates down, (I have never seen this cars roof in
action btw) the two pieces should be flat on top of each other.
I think the glass will be face down in the trunk, and the roof on
top.

3- Set up some kind of Set Driven Key sequence to do this work
for you. You could even go crazy and write an expression, so
you can set the top to UP (for example) and the expression
would make it move at a specified speed, all the time.

Good luck

#3

hey man, thanks a lot, i get what ur trying to say, ill use ur method(bones setup). Here is that roof in action(real image)
http://www.vertexstudios.net/Gallery/sl1.jpg

Ill try to make it work as it should. Ill be posting more questions, so please if u can check on this thread. Thx.

#4

I should think that a really well written set driven key without any bones would work just as well. If you move the pivot points of each part of the roof to the correct positions that they should rotate at in real life, then you could write an SDK that says “when the bottom piece rotates, the top piece rotates X proportionally” and then control the bottom piece rotation with a custom attribute on whatever you want. I don’t know how smooth you want the animation of it to be though, since most car tops I’ve ever seen have speedy parts and slow parts when they’re folding, so something more complicated as far as the SDK goes may be needed, but it sounds like you can accomplish it with a pretty easy time of it and a little planning.

#5

for something like this all you will need is the set driven key, since it would be best to have it automated and exactly the same everytime, forwards or backwards. I’d only use a bones rigging if I wanted to be able to custom animate the folding/unfolding myself each time. in that case, the FK/IK handles would be handy

#6

Thanks you all. I dunno what those things mean but thanks anyway. I was hoping that you guys could be more specific, condidering that im a noob in animation. Can you write in steps? For example: 1.) select the object x, then group it with … , then go to animation/setkey or whatever. Thanks in advance.

#7

I didn’t look through the tutorial really but this ought to get you on the right track:
http://www.3dny.org/news.phtml?view=13

Set Driven Keys are a type of keyframe that drives another attribute. Say, if you want a ball to rotate whenever you move a cube, you can set it up so that the rotation of the ball is linked to the translate of the cube. SDKs are a little confusing at first, then you’re like, “oh, duh, I get it!” and it becomes really powerful and handy. So, read up tutorials, or better yet, buy yourself some of the books from Alias. The Intro to 3D Animation/Maya/whatever it is one is the first book I ever used and it’s fantastic, it teaches you to model, animate, and basically touches on every single part of maya except some of the more advanced dynamics. It’s really good for beginners.

UPDATE: This is a link to a site that apparently has the entire Maya documentation online, I have used this site before for a number of things and it’s great.
http://caad.arch.ethz.ch/info/maya/manual/UserGuide/Animation/KeyframeMoPath/

#8

Hi there,

I think that the best way for you to learn is to try it. Otherwise you will never learn. To put it into steps its quite hard cuz everybody here might use different tecniques. You should fully understand what are you doing while rigging and believe me that later you will be able to rig about everything.
Just take a tutorial. See how it works… and then apply for what you need.
The concept behind is simple. You move one object and the other object
“looks” at it and moves accordingly to what you have planned.
Like I said, putting it into steps will not help you as much as if you just jump into it!
Good luck.

#9

Thank you guys. I appreciate you helping me, and so quick!! 20 min ago i posted that last question, and i already got 2 answers, absolutely different from each other. I know i should just try it, not asking too many questions not even having seen it. And about buying a book from alias, well, i dunno, i tought myself modeling, and i think im pretty fluent with it. ANimation? im a noob at this point, maybe tomorrow ill be better with it, who knows. There are too many tuts out there for free, i dont think anybody buy books anymore.

#10

the best set driven keys tutorial I have ever found was the video tut on 3dBuzz

You need to sign up as a member, but its free, and once you do you have access to all of buzz’s other video tutorials… good stuff :thumbsup:

#11

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