Animation Problem

# 1 02-11-2003 , 02:59 PM

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So here's the problem, I have my character all modeled and rigged and now I want to animate. What I want is for my character to balance a ball and then throw it up in the air. The tutorial im working from says I should select the ball and then group it to it's self and call that ballBounce and then again and call that node ballConstrain. I then constrain the ball to the hand.

After that I move the hand up to the throw position. What the tutorial tells me to do now is move the ballBounce node up, but all that happens is the nodes selection handel moves and the ball is still stuck to the hand. This is obvously not what I want to happen.

Cheers for your time.

P.S. Sorry about the long message

_LIVID

Last edited by Tim_LIVID; 02-11-2003 at 03:01 PM.

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# 2 02-11-2003 , 03:04 PM

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When you constrain thet ball, the constrain attributes includes a weight. If you animate this weight up and down, the ball will switch between the constrained point and the group node's location.

-Mike
The Maya Toolbelt

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# 3 02-11-2003 , 03:19 PM

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I hear what your saying, but you must forgive my nOObnes! Where would I find these weight atributes?

_LIVID

"You can live for yourself today -- or help build tomorrow for everyone" _LIVID

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# 4 02-11-2003 , 03:38 PM

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In the channel box when you select the constraint input item.

-Mike
The Maya Toolbelt

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# 5 02-11-2003 , 03:42 PM

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I have selected all the nodes, the joint and the ball and I can't see weight anywere..... god i'll be glad when I finish this tutorial!

_LIVID

"You can live for yourself today -- or help build tomorrow for everyone" _LIVID

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# 6 02-11-2003 , 03:57 PM

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Sorry, it's actually under Shapes, not Inputs.

And it's not exactly named obviously:

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-Mike
The Maya Toolbelt

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# 7 02-11-2003 , 03:58 PM

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I should point out that you might want to try constraining the ball to 2 points. You'll then get 2 weight channels where I've indicated and you can animate the weight between them to "pass" the ball between the two points.

You may find this tutorial useful:
https://www.simplymaya.com/movie_page...html?tut_id=63

-Mike
The Maya Toolbelt

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# 8 02-11-2003 , 11:58 PM

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God I am soo close to deleteing this dam project! That didn't do it im afraid. I make a change to the weight atributes at frame 70 and the changes apear all the way through the animation. Im also a bit concerned that I can't follow the tutorial. I have posted the page that I am on as I guess he can explain it better than me. If someone could have a little look and give their opinion I would be very gratefull.

What happens with me is that the handel moves up and the ball stay in the same place, I hope it is simple to solve.

_LIVID

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# 9 03-11-2003 , 10:36 PM

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Im sure I have just not checked an option box or something.

_LIVID

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# 10 04-11-2003 , 05:01 AM

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Ah, yes, I recall doing this tutorial way back when. You know, you can probably get just as good result just animating the ball itself without worrying about the constraint.

-Mike
The Maya Toolbelt

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# 11 04-11-2003 , 10:07 AM

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So this is an old tutorial, so you think I should move the head up and down and move the ball up and down to give the impression that they are touching?

On another note, why can't I have the ball contsrained for frames 1-70 and then unconstrain at 70. What happens for me is that if I unconstrain at frame 70 then it is not constrained at all ..... if you know what I mean

_LIVID

"You can live for yourself today -- or help build tomorrow for everyone" _LIVID

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# 12 05-11-2003 , 01:11 AM

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Bit of un update, I have taken your advice and animated the body and the ball seperate. It tell's me at frame 191 to turn the Passive Ridgid Body to Active. I then right-clicked and selected 'Key Selected'. I asume that make's the Passive Ridgid Body become Active from frame 191. It doesn't work as expected. When I create gravity to affect the ball and play back the animation the ball continues on as before. When I stop the playback and check, the Passive Ridgid Body say's Active is Off.

Sorry about the length, I couldn't make it any shorter.

_LIVID

P.S. How do I increase the speed of the animation, it all seams to be going at a bit of a slow rate for my liking ....... but I guess I should get the animation to do what I want it do before I worrie about stuff like that! user added image

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Last edited by Tim_LIVID; 06-11-2003 at 09:09 AM.

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# 13 06-11-2003 , 02:42 PM

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Originally posted by Tim_LIVID

God I am soo close to deleteing this dam project! That didn't do it im afraid. I make a change to the weight atributes at frame 70 and the changes apear all the way through the animation. Im also a bit concerned that I can't follow the tutorial. I have posted the page that I am on as I guess he can explain it better than me. If someone could have a little look and give their opinion I would be very gratefull.

What happens with me is that the handel moves up and the ball stay in the same place, I hope it is simple to solve.

_LIVID

Originally Posted by

Oh lordy, what a badly written tutorial... I was working through this one myself recently but gave up as there were so many gaps... not good for a nOOb like me!

That'll do donkey... that'll do...

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# 14 06-11-2003 , 07:59 PM

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Cheers, it's nice to know that some one else has been having problems with this tutorial. Im am tempted to give up, but I would be cool to see the seal drop the ball. If only the tutorial would tell me properaly.

_LIVID

"You can live for yourself today -- or help build tomorrow for everyone" _LIVID

Optical Minefield
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