I am very new to 3D computing. I have been experimenting with Blender and am overwhelmed with what it has to offer. However, being new to this, I am finding it hard to truly evaluate it’s features. I wonder if somebody would mind answering a question for me?
I wish to use Blender to model mechanical animations such as cogs, pulleys, pistons and multi-jointed/pivoted levers (such as a wiper mechanism on the Peugeot 306). I note Blender uses constraints with armatures. Are these features sufficient to model the above?
I note that release 2.37 will be aimed at animation features. Maybe this functionality will be addressed then – if not, how do I suggest such functionality for consideration?
I intend to put some time into learning Blender and its finer points and wanted to ensure it did what I wanted before I invested the time. It is evident from your replies that the power is there - it is just a matter of taming it!
I guess I should have asked; what are the limitations of Blender in this area? It looks as if I will have to get my hands greased with code to take full advantage. What can expect from the program with a bit of hard work but no coding?
a bit of hard work: quite much. lot of hard work: almost everything. it’s hard to answer your question. if you’r looking for point’nclick instant-mechanics, you’ll be disappointed. note that blender is used to make things convincing rather than accurate. so, you’ll be able to do some mechanics stuff without coding, but it won’t be the perfect wiper-simulator.
Sometimes, when you are rigging mechanical objects, you will find that you need to use the Empty to establish a free-floating point in space to which you can attach your armature… then use Parenting, or track-to constraints, to cause another object to properly follow that Empty. For instance, I needed to do that to model a mechanism where the hinge-point was “your wrist” but the anchor point for the crank was “your thumb.”
Do a search for some of S68’s projects in the Finished Works section. Contact him, if you like. He has done some great stuff with mechanics and rigging, including, I believe, a functioning clock.
