I’m working on a bouncing ball animation.I wanted more control on the ball so I am using a lattice with it. I am finding animating the lattice difficult, I tried using Vertex keys, but It seemed like there had to be an easier way, rather than using the permanent sliders. Another tutorial said use a “RotLocScale” Keyframe but that only worked for simple scaling and moving of the lattice. The lattice always changes, no matter what Keyframe Type I add. If anybody could tell me a good way of animating lattice I’d really appreciate it.
Thanks in Advance.
You’ll need to be more clear on what you are trying to do with the ball inside the lattice. One of the benefits of using a lattice instead of scaling the ball directly is that the ball can still rotate and maintain the squash from scaling the lattice, which would be very difficult to do by scaling the ball itself. Since you seem not to be satisfied with this, what is it that you are trying to do?
you can use armature on a lattice too. Just create a lattice around the ball, add a lattice modifier to the ball, and then add the armature modifier to the lattice. Here is a blend, I tried to make it simple. The ball on the left has a couple holder bones and then a bone for each corner of the lattice, the one on the right has just two bones, you can move and then scale those to squash or stretch. The animation is very robotic, but it should show how it works so you can modify for your own needs.
The Armeture looks like another good way to do it, I haven’t done rigging before though.
But what I was really trying to do is animate the lattice.
I am making a character out of a furry ball and want to give it some personality with deforming it.
As an example, something like this would be the starting frame.
Then I want to change the lattice to something like this and add a keyframe so it will animate.
None of the Keyframe options I’ve tried have worked; the lattice always changes no matter what type of lock I put on.
I figure there must be a simpler way to do it than the sliders in action editor.
Try hooks and empties. Lattice in edit mode > select the vertices you want to animate > Ctrl-H (add to new empty). Now you can key the empty(ies) to animate the lattice.
Note: ref the Ctrl-H menu -you can use objects instead of empties to key the hooks (haven’t tried this myself).
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You could always use hooks on the lattice control points and key them instead of shape keying the lattice itself . Just select the lattice and tab into Edit Mode -> select a control point you want to add a hook to and Ctrl-H -> Add, To New Empty, which will add a Hook-Empty modifier to the lattice object .
Now with the hook/empty applied to the lattice you can simply add keys to them in Object Mode instead of messing with the lattice or having to add shape keys etc . With something as simple as you are wanting this might be the best solution as you won’t need more then 8 hooks/empties to control the lattice and you can directly control in “realtime” your lattice and therefore your mesh .
You can apply the hook/empty modifier to almost anything btw . Vertex groups, individual vertices, control points on curves, etc … If I remember my Blender documentation correctly hooks/empties were added to give access to Edit Mode functionality at the Object level such as being able to move individual vertices/ control points only adjustable in Edit Mode . And of course the advantage of being able to to this in Object Mode is that you can animate/key the hook/empties without having to use shape keys and also by keying only the Loc value (hooks/empties are only points in space scaling/rotating them are pointless) which also simplifies editing the IPO curves …
EDIT : LarryPhillips beat me to it … But I can confirm his “note” . Yes you can use any object as a hook/empty modifier . Just input the object’s name into the “Ob:” field in the modifier panel or use the context menu with Ctrl-H . But because the location of the objects center is offset relative to the hooked control point this can cause some confusion if you do not snap the the cursor to the control point before you add the control object … You might want to stick with hooks for now …
Don’t ya just hate it when this happens? A simple answer slipped in before your better (more informative) one? Makes me #%&@! when it happens to me.
Glad it happened here tho: Thanks for the tips in your edit.
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That works! Thanks you guys!