I don’t know if it’s possible to do what I want, but here goes.
I have created a ‘road’ using dupliframes following a path - no problems there… Now what I would like to do is animate it’s contruction… That is frame 0 is empty, upto frame ‘n’ where the road is complete.
i.e: (frame number/road appearance)
1/*
2/**
3/***
4/****
etc.
I’m pretty new to using dupliframes (I have read the DF section of the book many times!), but it may be that I have really misunderstood the modelling process :-?
Ok, so I created my ‘road’ using dupliframes then ctrl+shift+A, then ctrl+J gave me a ‘road’ mesh. I then used the build effect… close enough I guess (but not very flexible when it comes to rerouting the road!!?)
create a curve and form it into the shape of the road
create a plane, sizing it appropriately for the width of the road (may need to make it rectangular for better results)
(normal) parent the plane to the curve,
select curve, F9, set curve to curvepath & curvefollow,
select plane, F7, enable dupliframes
with the dupliframes selected, ctrl+shift+A, ctrl+J
with the new mesh selected, add the build effect
Alt+A will animate the road construction - except that since it is still parented to the curve, it will move around! So, clear the parent relationship.
That’s about it… I’d still like the ability to animate dupliframes directly (much more flexible when it comes to re-routing the road, changing its length etc. but never mind eh?