Rotation of several objects

Support Animation and Rigging
#1

Version: 2.49a
Hello, I’m still learning all the ins and outs of blender.

I’m not sure if I’m approaching this correctly or not, ive made some animations with basic movements and changing the ipo curves, which took a while but i think i have the hang of it.

The main problem is that i need to change the animation.

here’s what i have so far

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y206/prozaker/sshot-2009-07-31-1.png

The bottom gray cube needs to rotate alone, while each piece gets into camera view does an “entrance” (sort of like stands still in front of the camera) and then stacks on top of the rotating cube rotating with it, one by one until all of them rotate with the cube.

I tried to search for temporary parent but i see that a parent cannot be keyed, idk if an empty would be enough ? since the rotation needs to be individual at first and then applied to the whole group.

Much appreciated help and a big thanks up front.

-Proz

#2

You can add a “Child Of” constraint to each puzzle piece and keyframe the influence.

And on an artistic note, you might want to add a tiny bit of bevel to the pieces. I think this will be pretty cool looking when it’s done.

#3

thank you very much, i will try that.

#4

i think i need a little bit more help on this issue, i made a child of constraint on all the colored cubes with the gray one in the bottom, the location changes, and i put them the way they are, but if i try locrot, nothing happens, even tho they do rotate with the gray cube, am i missing a step? in the use channels i used locx locy and rotz.

oh i think i see what you mean by keying the influence. just realized … will try that

#5

When I tested the idea, I used all the channels. I’m not sure how much of a difference that will make.

#6

Make the base an ordinary parent of the pieces, than animate the pieces entrance, than animate the base spinning. Then you’ll have the pieces and base spinning sort of bullet-time like, while coming together. Not sure if I’m understanding though…

#7

Might also help to work “backwards,” if you aren’t already – key the end positions, get the Constraint working for that rotation, then move back in the timeline and start keying out the Constraint influence piece by piece until they are free to move on their own, then keyframe their “entrances.” You’ll likely have to adjust timing once all the actions are keyed, but that can be done a number of ways – dragging IPO keypoints, moving keys in the Action Editor, etc.