Two Spheres linking with a cylinder - which constraint?

Support Modeling
#1

Hi,

This is probably a very simple question for a more experienced user, but for me at the moment very difficult.

Image two spheres and thin cylinder going from the center of sphere1 to the center of sphere2. When I move any of the spheres the cylinder should follow the movement, always going though/to the center of the spheres.

This is done with a contraint certainly, but wich kind of contraint and to which of the tree objects?

Thanx for help,
S.

#2

Should be possible with hooks.

  1. Create the 2 spheres and the tube
  2. Go to edit mode for the tube and create 2 hooks one for the verts on each side of the tube.
  3. Parent the new created emptys (the hooks create them) each to one of the spheres.
    That should do it.
#3

Thanx. I’ve experimented with the hooks. It works, when the end-vertices of the cylinder are each in one of the spheres.

But what, if a want the cylinder to have a fixed length, one sphere always at one end, but the other sliding along the cylinder due to changing distance/angle?

http://www.mmds.de/sphereshook.jpg

#4

I think that(hooks and emptys) only will stretch the tube when he moves the spheres, probably he only needs to parent them to the tube, from what I read on his post.

Edit

Uh, sorry I now see what you are saying, of course you can make the tube a path and parent> follow path, or add a follow path constraint, but I think I understand what you want (and that will only be relative to the animation frameset),

I hope someone else gives you a better answer