A question of blender 2.33a animation

Support Animation and Rigging
1

Hi,
I have a little question about animation: i’m doing a kind of catapult boat, and I wish to know how I can do an animation (like lot, rot or size), were I modify a part of the object, or better, changing the place of some points.
Thanks.

2

armatures:
http://www.blender.org/modules/documentation/htmlI/x6668.html
http://www.blender.org/modules/documentation/htmlI/x6775.html
http://www.blender.org/modules/documentation/htmlI/x6867.html

vertex keys [relative or absolute]:
http://www.blender.org/modules/documentation/htmlI/c6321.html#section_animation_AVK
http://www.blender.org/modules/documentation/htmlI/x6463.html

lattice deformation:
http://www.blender.org/modules/documentation/htmlI/x6575.html

it is all in the docs
http://www.blender.org/modules/documentation/htmlI/

3

yeah, i tried this. And two more questions apear:

  • I had a idea. I tried to make a rot animation, were the move point was the cursor. All seems to work, but when I simulate the animation, it doesn’t work. Why?
  • I tried the vertex keys, but they doesn’t work. I don’t undertood the tutorial very weel. Can everyone explain, please? :expressionless:
4

It seems to me that you’re doing an animation of a mechanical device, and this tutorial should help:
http://download.blender.org/documentation/html/x5897.html

In this requirement, you’re really not animating points on an object. That is to say, you’re not animating the bulge of a muscle or the deformation of a surface. (That’s what relative vertex keys are for.) What you are doing is making things move as a whole.

The concept of parenting is very important here too, so check out some of the other pages of the same tutorial listed above. Parenting will be used, for example, to “attach” the bucket and its parts to the throwing arm.

5

That´s because the certer of the animation of off (Blender uses the obj pivot for that - the little yellow point every obj has in obj mode). To replace it, go to obj mode, place the cursor where you want the new pivot to be and hit the “Center Cursor” button.

6

Or use a helper Empty at the position of the Pivot, and make it the parent of the object that rotates.