I am working on one of my first animations and I’m not sure the best way to set up bones for my model. Here is what I am trying to do:
-The model is a crane with a swinging arm (I can do that part). The problem I am having is getting the hoist to move back and forth on the arm while the crane is pivoting. I can get the hoist to go back and forth or I can get the hoist to swing on the boom, but I can’t seem to do both.
Thanks for any help.
I’m pretty sure i could answer your question if I could only visualize what you are trying to do a little better. Could you put up a diagram or something?
you don’t need to deal with armatures, unless you want the rope to be deformed. see below for a quick setup.
you could parent the hoist to the crane arm, so it follows the rotation. additionally, make the hoist track an empty so that it points in it direction. when you rotate the arm, animate the empty with an offset so that the impression of inertia is given. do the same when moving the hoist forth/back along the arm.see sketch below
Thanks, that was very helpful and it turned out to be much simpler that the complecated way that I was trying to do it. I apppreciate the help.