How Do I solve my animation problem?
I have been unable to animate any vertical movement. Horizontal for turning works fine. I've exhausted all ideas I can think of. And have been stuck for over a week. Here is a brief video describing what I am trying to do and what I have tried. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1mlsfUW_-c
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Yeah... this is to do with how keyframes interact with jointed objects within movable groups. They make those objects movable, even if they're set not to be. I've actually had a lot of trouble with getting wheels that steer work because of this, myself.
One thing you could try is to not use keyframes at all, but tweak the joints in question and set them to be motor bolts. Then give them limits and send them a signal from -1 to 1 to set where within those limits the desired position is, and the joint will rotate at the designated speed to get it there. -
'@TAPgiles I can't use motor bolts. Too many connectors in series. I did some testing very early on and connectors don't like it. Very difficult to balance if it is even possible. In this case it probably isn't. I got my steering working as you can see in the video. Though I did have issues when I first attempted it. At first it seemed loosening the connector tightness fixed my issue after I first went through and regrouped and redid all the connectors. But since that same time steering has worked even with connector tightness set to 100%. Though tightness does put some torque on the rest of the vehicle it isn't bad. And the tightness gives a bit of delay to the animation that so far I like and can tweak just how I want it later. But for now steering is good. I just can't get any lift. I've tried everything. It makes no sense. Any idea given to me thus far; I've tried with the same result.
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This project is pointless if I can't figure out this problem. It is a key feature.
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Something to know is the joints aren't actually very strong, so when they need to hold up some other weight things can get hairy.
One thing to consider is using fewer connectors. Unless all of those connectors actully need to be there to allow you to rotate all of those parts, you could likely get away with removing some and having them just be static--perhaps as a group or something like that.
I really don't have the answers here; I'm just throwing out ideas you can try out. ? -
I've been tinkering on a vehicle rig the past couple of months, and I can confirm pretty much everything TAP said.
I really wanted to use keyframes in a timeline for my suspension to effectively 'push' against the vehicle, but it's a solid no go. And even without keyframes, connectors with any movement range are iffy if the joint needs to bear weight.
In the end, I found the most reliable solution was to have a vehicle that hovers above the ground using movers and force appliers, with the mechanism of the suspension being purely visual (keyframes on a timeline).
It's quite a bit different from what you're trying to do, but maybe it'll give you some ideas: https://indreams.me/scene/drvAxakKxtg
Remixable: https://indreams.me/element/oibnQHppZUj
There is a LOT of unrelated logic in there to chew through, so feel free to ask any questions. :)
Really cool vehicle, by the way! -
Yeah, to be honest I'm surprised the wheels bear the weight and move to steer. May have to do with using rotators instead of relying on amotor bolt?
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cgCody's rig is legit.
I have no experience making vehicles, but I know if you have limits set on a connector, you can input a 0-1 signal into the angle position (or called something like that) in the connector tweak menu. Maybe move them that way instead of via keyframe? -
I tried to delete the connecters group and animate from there. Still wouldn't work. I haven't tried the hover method yet. I guess that is the only option left to try. Perhaps I could drop the vehicle into a puppet and mess around with that. This isn't just a vehicle issue. Ignore it is vehicle and just think why can I not do this action. Take the tires off and the issue is still the same. I just want to use the connectors as guides and constraints for me when I go to animate. Keeping things inline, along an axis, and within a range.
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Here I explain what I have and for what reasons. Omitting the logic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XNhoXfAw84 -
For the joints on the legs, what settings have they got? If they have limits and tightness and such, perhaps that is interfering with the keyframe positioning, something like that?
That said, it seems like just keyframeing the legs at all messes things up? -
I have just recreated the effect in Dreams, you would have to use your model as a dummy and have the movement of the vehicle powered by a second object, it could be a copy of the current one.
I have recorded a video on YouTube showing it working.
Basically you have your vehicle teleport to the location of the second vehicle on the second vehicle the tag location is put onto a square and the square is keyframed to move upwards, this in turn will put your object up, probably doesn’t make sense reading this but watch the video and I’ll save a version online for you.
This is how I cheat with a lot of my complex vehicles :)
https://youtu.be/-BKkWrkHKiw -
Just figured out another way where you can use you original vehicle without a dummy for power, check out my page called remix of car lift :)
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Sneaky! ;P
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Always gotta be sneaky with Dreams lol :)
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If you haven't tried manually controlling the connector rotation via the connector tweak menu, I would give it a try. You could just plug a value slider into it and then keyframe the value slider if you can't figure out another way to get a 0-1 value into it smoothly.
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