Hello again. I’m setting up a rig for a locking mechanism. The setup so far is a cylinder in the center, with an array of dummy’s surrounding it. When the cylinder rotates along the Z axis, I want the dummys to travel inward along their local Y axis. I read there is no real ‘local’ axis for objects (so you don’t have to explain that part to me).
So I’ve got one dummy wired to the cylinder at the moment, and I’ve got Z_Rotation in the script area of the Wire Parameters dialog. What I’m trying to get is…
if cylinder rotates positively – move dummys inward (along local y axis)
if cylinder rotates negatively – move dummy outward (picture the locking pins on a bank vault)
all help appreciated, thank yuz.
Straight off my head, I think you will need another point of reference, to be able to determine the rotation of the cylinder against. Probably another helper to which the cylinder is parented to, so that when the cylinder is rotated, you can compare the z-rotation from the cylinder to the z-rotation of the helper and determine the rotation direction.
Having said that, some one will undoubtly point out a better way, which I look forward to hearing about! But this might give you a jump of point.
When I have some more time, I will look more deeply into it.
ps You have the “z-rotation” of the cyclinder wired to the “y-axis” of the helper don’t you??
So I was makin’ a deposit in the ol’ porcelain bank, and some things I read in other forum posts kept bouncin’ around in my head. And one thing was that objects don’t really have a local axis, but instead base their transforms on what ever object they’re parented to. And since the lock-pin dummy’s are parented to a dummy who’s axis is basically equal to the World axis, all dummy transforms only react along one axis instead of individual axis or ‘local’ axis like I need.
So instead of making the cylinders rotation control the dummy’s, I have it control the positions of the pins. The dummy’s, instead of being a controller for the pins, act more as an axis reference for the pins. Maybe there’s a better way to do this, if there is, let me know, thanks.
So on a seperate, but related note. I was curious if there’s a way, while in the Wire Parameters dialog, to wire multiple objects to one controller at the same time. Like in the example above, to wire all locking pins at once, instead of wiring each one by one.
For more information about how transforms work have a look at my site.
Your porcelain brain storm is correct. Each objects transform is based off of it’s parent. Really you could say that there is only parent space, that is a bit loose when it comes to rotations how ever as you have other things to consider. As far as positions go the axis is relitive to its parents axis. The way that you have gone about it is just what I would do. Have a look at M Group script on my site for making it easier to set a point helper for the objects to be aligned to.
So I checked out your site. You’ve got some cool work up. I’m not quite sure how your M Group tool works, and how it would help with point helpers though. And while I’ve got your attention here, is there a way to wire multiple objects to one controller at the same time with the Wire Parameters dialog? I haven’t heard back from anyone on that. If there isn’t a way to do so, whadya gonna do? But if there is, it sure would hep trim down some work time, thanks.
As a follow up, here’s what I was making. The main locking pins that move upward are contolled by a point helper, which also controls the slight movement of the lower locking teeth (to simulate the give of the pin sliding out). And as above, I have a point that controls the inward movement of the teeth.