Transform Handle Plea...

[TimD]

Transform Handle Plea...

I just recently had to animate a set of sliding doors on an imported model.

The problem is, that in imported models, every mesh has its origin (and therefore its Transform Widget) at 0, 0, 0 -- irrespective of where in the model the mesh is relative to the origin.

This made moving the doors a bit akin to trying to eat a Chinese meal with 2-metre-long chopsticks. Frustrating.

I know you can do this in C4D -- 'Uncouple' the transform handle and then move it into any position relative to its mesh, so you can line it up with the mesh, to change the displacement offset, move the pivot point, scale origin...am I making sense?

Frank will now tell me that this can all be achieved with folders...:wink:

 

[Meshman]

Tim, make the mesh editable and move it so that the desired pivot point is at the origin of the three axes (i.e. 0,0,0) then select Tools>coordinate system and hit 'OK' next to burn transform in the tool window. Bob's your Auntie

 

[TimD]

...And Fanny's your uncle's live-in lesbian lover.

Cheers, MM, sort of what I wanted to do, but in reverse...:icon_thumbup:

 

[Meshman]

...And Fanny's your uncle's live-in lesbian lover.

Cheers, MM, sort of what I wanted to do, but in reverse...:icon_thumbup:

Exactly Not the most elegant implementation of this sort of functionality it has to be said.

 

[frank beckmann]

I just recently had to animate a set of sliding doors on an imported model.
Frank will now tell me that this can all be achieved with folders...:wink:

Tim.
No I won´t as far as I don´t have any troubles with folders.
Sliding doors "out of phase" can easely be done with the morph-tag added and just one morph target is necessary.

With kindest regards
Frank

 

[TimD]

Hmm...my very own Speakeasy...form an orderly queue, now!

Frank, so the closed & open positions are two ends of the Morph target?

That's a very Elegant solution, but you still have to move the doors.

My original problem was that the Transform handles are far removed from the mesh that they're associated with (the doors) -- this makes moving them accurately difficult in the first place.

 

[frank beckmann]

Tim.
I know that, but the trick about the morph tag is, that you can move your door as a selected mesh in polygon mode. So the transform gadget will come to that door as a prophet to the mountain.

Frank

 

[TimD]

Ahaaaa....well, bugger me.

You learn something new every day. Cheers, Frank, That's a very useful thing to know. Know, if I'd known it, say, two years ago...

(you can tell I don't do much modelling in Cheetah, can't you?)