Flock help please.

http://www.glennmelenhorst.com/games/blender/DOT_028.blend
I’m posting this again in this forum hoping foar a little help.

Here’s my first version with basic animation on the dots.
Any advice as to why they are flying away (and I suspect it’s an axis thing I don’t understand) would be appreciated.

Cheers!
Glenn Melenhorst
http://www.glennmelenhorst.com

What’s the problem?
Lovely level by the way!

The little yellow guys seem to float off the ground and if they get ontop of eachother, they are prone to just sailing away. I had digid body dynamics on them at one stage but they behave erratically and shudder when they hit an obstacle like the fence.
It pains me as I have plans for this game which are stymied by this problem :frowning:

Glenn :slight_smile:

Well I did Editing(F9)/Mesh/‘Center New’ on all of the yellow critters and I managed to round them up and put them in the pen. I find that the physics engine throws a wobbly if the centre of gravity is off centre. Does that give you what you want???
really nice look to your level… Oh and well done for using the word ‘Stymied’ in a thread… should be encouraged…!

“Oh and well done for using the word ‘Stymied’ in a thread …should be encouraged…!”
Ha! that’s funny and I agree.
I applied ‘Mesh/Center New’ to each of the yellow dudes and found no difference in performance here. i’m assuming you applied the modification to the mesh and not the armature. Also, when hitting ‘Mesh/Center New’, the center didn’t seem to shaift anyway.
Am I missing something?

Thanks for your reply.

Glenn Melenhorst

I am downloading it now, will look if i have time… but did you make all the round things from one? If so, they will maintain the center of the original one, I think.

So separate them and then give them new centers. Also the armature centers should match.

Make sure the axis all match too, z up…

Hmm, I dont see them flying away at all. They look like they are floating, but they are not. It is an optical illusion… I think. Maybe move the view a little lower?
Love the collors and graphics, nice job.

>>did you make all the round things from one?
No, I made one and then duplicated it (The skin and armature together)

>>So separate them and then give them new centers.
I followed Larryboy’s suggestion and applied ‘Mesh/Center New’ to each of the yellow dudes.

>>Also the armature centers should match.
They seem to but I can see no way of resteeing an armature’s center. Is that in a different place?

>>Make sure the axis all match too, z up…
They all do.

For me, if one yellow dude “jumps” on top of another, it continues to float of diagonally up till is sails away. :frowning:

Glenn Melenhorst.

And, It seems I have lost my 3D cursor! Help!

Glenn

Ok, listen. When you duplicate them, they will all have the same center, the center they were duplicated from…if I remember correctly.

So before you do the new center button, you must make them all their own object.

In object mode, object menu/clear-apply/make duplicates real.

Then do the centers.

I never had one of the little guys jump up on another one. How did you make that happen so I can duplicate that and help?

When you first make an armature, with the add amature, it will be placed where your cursor is positioned.

To move its center, in object mode, position your cursor where you want the new center to be. Then with the armature selected, go into the object menu/transform/center cursor.

Your cursor is lost? Pick anyplace on the screen and RMB and it should be there.

To place your cursor in the center of an object, select the object and then go to object/snap/cursor to selection.

To find a center between objects, select the objects and do the same. The cursor will snap to the middle point of your selection.

Hope that helps.

That does help. Thanks a lot for your time. i hope to publish a fixed update soon.
Your time is greatly appreciated.
BTW, the coords for my 3dcursor in the view propertied dialogue were “X: -1.#J”, “Y: -1.#J
and “Z: -1.#J”. I changed them to 0 and got my cursor back. must have been some sort of internal glitch. It meant I coudn’t build anything. If I added a cube, it would be in the outliner but invisible on the screen. I couldn’t even center/frame in on it.

All is well now.

Glenn