This seems very stupid… I can’t animate a simple gear. I just want it to rotate constantly on its local axis, but it’s crooked, so when I add a rot keyframe at frame 1 and a slightly rotated version on frame two, and in the ipo window, change the curves to cyclic extrapolation, it does random cartwheels. I just want to know if there’s some local rot ipo curve I can add or something.
No.
Basically this is about understanding coordinate systems.
http://translate.google.de/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fde.wikibooks.org%2Fwiki%2FBlender_Dokumentation%3A_Koordinatenr%25C3%25A4ume&sl=de&tl=en&hl=de&ie=UTF-8
(the automatic translation is not so good, but it may be helpfull anyway)
The most important thing to know is that the coordinates of a parent are the center of the global coordinate system of the child.
So the practical solution is simple.
- Align your object to the global coordinates.
- Give it a parent (i.e. make your object it’s child).
- Rotate the parent until your object is in the right position.
Now you can animate the childs rotation as usual.
HTH
I thought there would be some way to make the IPOs correspond to local coordinates. I guess this is good enough.
It should work, that is if I understand what you are doing.
Do these steps match your set up?
- Rotate the object Gear into position while in Global Transform Orientation
- Set Transform Orientation to Local, (Create key)
- Move the timeline down the number of frames you want for the cycle
- Rotate the Gear on the axis you want the rotation, to the distance you want for that cycle (Can be any amount) - create key of course
These steps here so far determine the speed of constant rotation
- Adjust the IPO curve to:
Interpolation Mode: Anything but Constant
Extend Mode: Cyclic Extrapolation
This will create a curve that extends forever in either direction at a constant speed.
Now you can change the Transform orientation again and move the gear or rotate any other objects or elements. As long as you create the keyframes for the local rotation while in local Transform Orientation that will reflect in the IPO curve. If one is key is set While in Global and the other set Local you’ll get wobble.
Hope this is what you are looking to do and helps.
Umm…by transform orientation do you mean alt-space? Or is it something else, because that can’t be it, since that’s just for the widget.
Yes, that’s it. The widget controls the gear. If the widget is in local space when you make the key it will work. Try it. Unless of course you are not trying to rotate a gear that has been rotated at an angle first in world space. That is what I thought you were trying to do.
- Rotate gear into position - world space (don’t need to create a key)
- Change to local space - rotate gear (create two keys for animation)
If you need to do something more complex like the gear actualy also is moved and rotated in world space independently then parenting is the way to go. At that point the ipo should be workable at the local level for the gear independently.
Also check out this thread:
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=138509
Well, I must be misunderstanding you, because that doesn’t work. I rotate the gear in global mode to point it around. Then I go into local mode and add a rotation keyframe. Then I rotate it along its local z axis and add another rotation keyframe. I press alt-a. It cartwheels randomly. I really don’t see how changing the widget orientation has any effect on the ipos.
Well I am not that familiar with Blender yet so forgive me if I did not include all information.
What worked for me was to actually grab the widget handle when rotating and then creating the key. This creates one curve only on that channel. Other methods seem to create curves on the other channels. If there are no curves on other channels then there is no wobble, but going into the ipo any further is already beyond where I am in the manual.
So here is the blend file.
EDIT: Sorry. I don’t want to give out misleading information. It is not a single curve that does, it. Been going over this and trying to determine exactly what made my example work. Still working on figuring out what made that work 2 times no less! lol I’ll get back when I do. 
Attachments
Gear.blend (133 KB)
Cheers for that!
Also there is another way to lock the constraint but I just can’t seem to find how I did it. I think you can lock it based on the local rotation. It makes a secondary widget, just can’t find the tool now.
Also it should work with Track - at least it does in LightWave. You can target an item then rotate on the channel that is free.
How would you do that in Blender?
Wait, but for me, pressing I and selecting rot always adds three channels. No matter how it’s rotated. I just don’t get it. I also don’t get how and when ipos correspond to local coordinates. i’m so confused.
Please post an example .blend file of your problem. I just verified that object rotation is keyed on the local axis values (take the default cube, rotate it randomly, set a keyframe… then move forward a few frames, rotate it on it’s local x-axis and insert a new keyframe… you’ll see that only the x-axis IPO changes; select it and change the extend mode to extrapolation). My guess is that you’re inadvertently animated a change on more than one axis. If you post a .blend, then it should be pretty easy to tell.
My bad for confusing you about multiple curves. Multiple channels is OK just as long as there is only a value on the x rotation. But for me this is already beyond my understanding of how curves work in Blender. I would stay start a fresh scene and/or upload as suggested.
Hello,
I’m often getting very confused with the “global” and “local” concept… but one thing can be done easely: in IPO curves, just select and delete any curves you don’t need (here y and z). This will force for a unique rotation and… save calculation time to your machine.
I know, I do do that, I was just confused by why only the x axis is treated as a local axis in the ipo editor.