Motion path animation question.

# 1 25-08-2003 , 12:24 PM

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Im doing a simple starwars animation project, and im having a little problem the speed of a spaceship when attached to a motion math. The ship only moves at one speed. How can you change the speed of the animation ( be it super fast or real slow ). The speed of my animation is a little too slow for my prefference.

Any help on this problem would be fantastic.

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# 2 25-08-2003 , 12:54 PM

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When you attach an object to a motion path, you can see in your channel box, a new input called "motion path." Click it to reveal the motion path options that can be keyed. The top one, "U Value" is the location on the curve the object is at any given frame. So, if we say, for example, that my cube is running along the path from frames 1 - 300, I can go to frame 150, select U Value in the Channel Box, right click, and "Key Selected."

When you do so, you'll notice a new indicator like the ones at the start and end of the curve. This one would be designated as frame 150.

You can select this indicator as if it were any other object, and with the move tool, move it along the curve, thus changing where the cube (or spaceship) will be along the curve at frame 150, thus speeding up, or slowing down, the animation.

Hope that helps. You can add as many of those indicators as you need to get the speed control you want.

You can even have an object travel back and forth by moving an indicator from frame 200 back behind the indicator for frame 150, and so on.

-Mike
The Maya Toolbelt

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# 3 25-08-2003 , 12:58 PM

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here's a pic

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-Mike
The Maya Toolbelt

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# 4 25-08-2003 , 03:42 PM

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Excellent explanation mtmckinley user added image

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# 5 27-08-2003 , 04:16 PM

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Sorry It has tooken so long to get back to this thread. I understand what you are saying about key frames. I tried it out, but unfortunately, It's not doing what I want it "to" do. Mabe a more indepth explanation could help me out a bit more.

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# 6 29-08-2003 , 02:12 PM

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That's about as in-depth an explanation as I can come up with.

-Mike
The Maya Toolbelt

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# 7 29-08-2003 , 06:41 PM

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Alrighty then, I guess I will keep working with it. I will eventually get it to work for me.

Say, can one do a Star Wars opening scroll with Maya?

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# 8 29-08-2003 , 10:18 PM

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You can also select your object and go to the Graph Editor or dope sheet. There you can move the key frames so that the object animates on the same path over a shorter peroid of time.

To do the scrolling text, either:

1.) Create > Text, position your camera, and animate the object

or
2.) Create > Polygon Primatives > Plane, create a bitmap of the text in Photoshop (or some other image creation tool), and map it on to the plane. Then, once again, position your camera, & animate the object

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# 9 30-08-2003 , 08:25 AM

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Or you could do the star wars text in After Effects. See link below:

https://www.creativemac.com/HTM/58Sec...ing-popup1.htm

I just did this for a client's DVD. It worked more or less like a charm. I did have to make the text in Illustrator, import it into Photoshop at twice the resolution, save it and then scale it in After Effects. For some reason the "continuous rasterize" didn't work with the original Illustrator file in After Effects. You'll have to play with this to get it to work properly but the results are perfect.

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# 10 31-08-2003 , 04:47 PM

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I thought about mapping a bitmap or a tiff to a polygon primitaves plane, but there seems to be a slight problem with that. The star background. Once the scroll is animated, you will mostlikely see the image plane borders as it moves across the star field unless maya can layer the scroll over a star background ( that might work ). As for after effects, I don't have it. Hey, mabe some of you who really have the experience with maya can come up with a nice tutorial.

I will eventually get my animations up to speed via kia key frames, thanks for the help!

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# 11 10-05-2006 , 05:34 PM

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Don't mean to post so late, but I am just starting to learn how to use the motion path. Also, I was wondering how to do the samething with a character. Orgianlly, I thought you were suppose to use the set motion path key, but it would foul up my curve and throw-off my timing. However, by following Mike's explanation, I was able to resolve my problem. So once again Mike, you have save the day.

Thanks a bunch.

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