ZooHead
0
I wanted to set up a system to test different suspension configurations after coming
across a worksheet made by Koni, a major shock absorber manufacturer.
I was fascinated by the suspension configuration on the worksheet,
and wondered what it would look like if I animated it.
I'm not a mechanic so I never realized the pivot points don't have
to make a parallelogram, so visualizing it in motion is not easy.
When animating any complex system, be it character or mechanical, you want to
set it up so you can animate one part that will drive other parts to simplify animation.
For organic bendy things, working with Bones is probably the best way,
but with rigid mechanical stuff using Joints/Bones/Skeleton is unnecessary.
I've used Bones for mech stuff before, because I
thought I had to in order to use the IK Handle Tag.
But the IK Handle works on Polygon Objects as well as Bones.
across a worksheet made by Koni, a major shock absorber manufacturer.
I was fascinated by the suspension configuration on the worksheet,
and wondered what it would look like if I animated it.
I'm not a mechanic so I never realized the pivot points don't have
to make a parallelogram, so visualizing it in motion is not easy.
When animating any complex system, be it character or mechanical, you want to
set it up so you can animate one part that will drive other parts to simplify animation.
For organic bendy things, working with Bones is probably the best way,
but with rigid mechanical stuff using Joints/Bones/Skeleton is unnecessary.
I've used Bones for mech stuff before, because I
thought I had to in order to use the IK Handle Tag.
But the IK Handle works on Polygon Objects as well as Bones.