creating a rotation action

[bubba]

I have created an action that rotates an object 90 degrees. The problem is that it always starts from the zero azimuth If it is not a too advanced subject is there any to have the start of the action to be from where the front of the action is facing? Then, I could rotate the object 90 degrees from there.

[robcat2075]

Could you describe that more? I'm not sure what you are wanting to do.

[Xtaz]

drag the action into the model and in its properties set HOLD LAST FRAME to ON...

 

drag same action again then set BLEND METHOD to ADD ...

[bubba]

Could you describe that more? I'm not sure what you are wanting to do.

 

Think of the turret on top of a tank body. It can swivel 260 degrees. It can stop and start again from the same place it stopped. It can go left or right.

[bubba]

drag the action into the model and in its properties set HOLD LAST FRAME to ON...

 

drag same action again then set BLEND METHOD to ADD ...

 

 

Still doesn't do what I want. The action (swivel right 90 degrees) always starts from a forward facing position.

[HomeSlice]

Could you describe that more? I'm not sure what you are wanting to do.

 

Think of the turret on top of a tank body. It can swivel 260 degrees. It can stop and start again from the same place it stopped. It can go left or right.

 

Why do you want to create an action for that? Why not just rotate the bone in the Chor? It will be less fiddly than having to worry about Action Blending for such a simple task.

[robcat2075]

Yes, animate the bone in the chor. That will be dramatically simpler.

 

One of the oversights of TAoA:M is that it doesn't explicitly introduce keyframing in the chor. It demonstrates keyframing in an action which is mostly the same buttons, but it doesn't mention that you can and mostly will animate in the chor for most things.

[bubba]

But that was what I thought Actions were for - to handle repeating actions. I was hoping in the future, when I became more knowledgeable about A:M to figure out some way to randomize the swelling.

[robcat2075]

But that was what I thought Actions were for - to handle repeating actions. I was hoping in the future, when I became more knowledgeable about A:M to figure out some way to randomize the swelling.

 

Is a tank turret really repeating? Everything it aims at will be a different spot, no?

[bubba]

Well yes that is true.

[Rodney]

It seems to me you could get what you want by creating your animated rotation in a Pose.

Then when you want to rotate you slide the slider to the desired extent of the pose?

[Fuchur]

Yes, use a Pose or even better: Create a null-object in the chor, select the bone of the tank turret and apply a "Aim-At"-Constraint with the "Null"-object as target. Now you can move the null-object around and the turret will follow. For an even better rig you could do that in a pose and limit the up- / down-movement with a Euler-Limit-Constraint...

 

See you

*Fuchur*

[bubba]

Yes, use a Pose or even better: Create a null-object in the chor, select the bone of the tank turret and apply a "Aim-At"-Constraint with the "Null"-object as target. Now you can move the null-object around and the turret will follow. For an even better rig you could do that in a pose and limit the up- / down-movement with a Euler-Limit-Constraint...

 

See you

*Fuchur*

 

I have seen the term 'Euler' before - what exactly is 'a Euler?'

[robcat2075]

"Euler" is a way of representing rotation with XY and Z Axis ("Quaternion" and "Vector" are others) and the Euler Constraint can limit rotation to the XY or Z axis.

 

However, there's an easier way for your Tank Turret situation:

 

TankTurretManipulatorLimits.mov

 

 

Note that you must have "Show Advanced Properties" ON in the Tools>Options>Global tab for the Manipulator Options to appear in a bone's properties.

[Gerry]

An Euler interpolation allows things to rotate more than 360 degrees. Set a beginning and ending point for a rotation, right click on the Rotate settings in the pws, and select "Euler". Now you can rotate an object 5000 degrees if you want, in other words, it will spin from the starting keyframe to the ending keyframe. Extremely handy, but probably not for a tank turret (though it depends on the tank I guess!)

[bubba]

Thanks Robcat2075. That was a very instructive video. And thanks to others that answered my questions.