Hey, I am new to posting on this forum, but I have visited here a good amount. (I couldn’t find how to register, had to google “register blenderartists”)
Anyway, I have decided to try something more ambitious. I want to make a transformer in blender. I drew up a quick sketch, and uploaded it. All the external pieces match up to the toaster. I also uploaded a render that I made recently of my current project, which requires me to make a city in blender (If you’ll notice, there are some ao glitches on the glass building, it is because the windows overlap, I need to merge some vertices).
So, I would like to know how I could animate such a thing. I am new to animation, but I have watched enough tutorials and screwed around with blender that I have a reasonable grasp. If you could just point me in the right direction, that would be great.
On a side note, I have been using blender since january, and have no 3d experience prior to that.
The concept and render both look like a good start … are they part of the same project?
For character animation, you can apply the usual techniques found in any books and tutorials you have or can find. As for rigging and animating the actual transformation, I would suggest a search here and elsewhere for just that (rig animate transformer) … if there’s not enough info in a post, you can always email or PM those who have worked on similar projects.
Thanks, and no (they are different projects, I am just showing that I am not a complete beginner). I found some blender animations, but they seemed really simplistic, and the ones that were more complicated were in other programs.
Update: I finished the toaster, as far as modelling goes (All the moving pieces of the outside are separated but the faces in each side are parented to objects off screen, so I don’t lose one or forget where it goes). All of the parts have the same center, the center of the toaster.
I uploaded a wire of the toaster.
And a question:
As far as animating goes, should I put each of the faces on a bone in an armature?
ahh another one inspired by the new transformers movie. If you ever need help, let me know. I am working on optimus prime right now, although with my slow progress, you will probably get to the transformation stage far before i do.
Looks like you’ve got a great concept though.
Update: I finished the toaster, as far as modelling goes (All the moving pieces of the outside are separated but the faces in each side are parented to objects off screen, so I don’t lose one or forget where it goes). All of the parts have the same center, the center of the toaster.
So each piece is a separate object? Sounds like having another object as a parent may help to complicate things. You can use an outliner window to list each part making it easy to select the one you want - as long as they are well named.
I uploaded a wire of the toaster.
And a question:
As far as animating goes, should I put each of the faces on a bone in an armature?
I am thinking you could go either way. Having each part as a separate object you can animate the location and rotation of each separately. One advantage in animating using the armature is you can setup constraints so that as you pull the hand piece out the arm can unfold with it and as you animate they will follow together as you want them to.
I found a couple of tutorials on how the action editor works and how to use it, but not much on the effect that it has, or how to use it in the scene itself. If anyone else has found tutorials on the subject, it would be great.
update: I have started moving bones into their positions, but the parts need to be attached to a robotic skeleton, which needs to fold up well… and I am not sure whether I need to go back and undo what I’ve done to make way for using the action editor.
The action editor defines the actions - a walking step, a wave of the hand, transforming from machine to robot… The movements needed for each action.
You then take those actions and mix and arrange them in the NLA editor. Three walk steps, a wave, a transform and so on, even a wave at the same time as a walk step, which make up the animation you are doing. Within the NLA you can control the timing of the actions, so if you create the transform action as using 36 frames in the action you can change it 72 frames in one instance so you get a slow mo transform. You can place a walk cycle and say I want it repeated 19 times over 20 seconds you notice it is too slow so you change it to 19 times over 16 seconds. These adjustments don’t alter the actions you define, it just lets you control the order and timing of the sequence of actions.
