When I constrain an object to a path, it pops off to God-knows-where on the screen and refuses to start or stop where I put it. Its not on the path, or even anywhere near it on many occasions, but it does this weird sorta-follow the curve shape thing wherever it randomly ends up on the screen.
Why doesn’t Follow Path allow an object to follow path? What needs to be done to prevent this bizarre and wholly unnecessary behavior?
Do Ctrl-A on both objects then Alt-O on the Child object, or Alt-P >> Clear Parent Inverse. That will put the child on the path. If you don’t want it exactly on the path you can still drag it to a new position. If it still freaky and Track and Up axii are correct in F7 then post a blend.
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Sorry to bring up an old post but I’m having the same problem as ScooterL and have tried Flighs’ suggestions with no change. Anyone have any ideas?
I have a further question, to go with Grumlaut’s, I’m using a bezier circle as a path for a planet orbiting a sun, and I’ve experienced the same behaviour as ScooterL and used Fligh’s solution to move the translated object back to the patn. The only problem is, I can’t locate the planet exactly back in its original position before I applied the Follow Path constraint. Does anyone have an idea of how to maintain an object’s position when applying the Follow Path constraint?
Do as Fligh suggested with aligning your object(s)/path with Ctrl-A . But unparent and use the Follow Path constraint instead (turn on curve follow if you want the object to align with the curve) of parenting to the curve … if this still doesn’t help post a blend (go Advanced under the reply field) …
@ stuayres : I am guessing you want to position the planet’s starting point at a particular point in its orbit ? If so just rotate the curve circle the planet is following until you get it to the position you want …
Vertex Pusher - that’s exactly what I’m trying to do, locating the planet back at a particular position to follow on from a previously animated sequence. I hadn’t thought of rotating the circle! I’ll try that, thanks. But is there a way of using something like Transform Properties to specify the exact position to return the object to? If I can this’ll make for a smoother transition from one animated sequence to the other (without having all the planets move slightly before they begin orbiting). I tried using Transform Properties to relocate the object after applying Follow Path, but it leaves the object where Follow Path left it.
Not that I know of … once an object is on a path the path determines where it is … you can get an indication of where the starting point is by opening up an IPO window and selecting the Path IPO type and adding a speed IPO curve . A pink dot will show up indicating where the animation starts on the curve circle …
Thanks Vertex Pusher for that - duplicated the planet to use the duplicate as a marker, applied the Follow Path constraint, followed Fligh’s advice to return the planet to the path, rotated the path as you suggested to position the planet back over the marker, removed the marker and started the next sequence! Worked a treat! Thanks for your help.