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Animation fun & games – a solution

hairyspin

hairyspin

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I've been hacking around with this cooling flap vent which opens to the trailing edge of the model's wing. To avoid airflow exiting the airway mixing with airflow from the top of the wing, there are folding gussets hinged to the flap and to a fillet upstand on the wing. The gussets fold flat together when the flap is closed down to minimum:–

RgQVWh.jpg



As the cooling vent flap opens, the upper (blue) gusset moves away from the lower (purple) gusset and both have to be rotated just enough to meet again along the hinge line between them. The long way would be to rotate each gusset until they meet nicely: much fiddling and lots of exasperation, repeat a number of times until fully animated!

I've tried a Look-At constraint on the lower gusset, looking at a dummy linked to the upper one, but that doesn't suit since it rotates the constrained gusset off its hinge line with the wing fillet. There has to be a solution! :banghead:

The answer is ridiculously simple. Both gussets have their pivots aligned with the Z axis pointing directly along the hinge lines:–

snMl5X.jpg



If the pivots point in opposite directions, selecting and rotating both together will move the middle edges together (or apart) simultaneously:–

5aTRwv.jpg



Easy peasy and it works as well in both Max (illustrated) and Gmax.
 
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Hi,

Good tip. I don't use the type in boxes near enough. You could also just rotate them manually, watching the box at the bottom of the screen so they are rotated by the same number of degrees.
 
tgibson said:
You could also just rotate them manually, watching the box at the bottom of the screen so they are rotated by the same number of degrees.
Click to expand...


Er,
...much fiddling and lots of exasperation, repeat a number of times until fully animated!
Click to expand...

The point is to rotate the parts simultaneously for each keyframe stage. This avoids the trial-and-error of rotating each a given amount until they line up. I've tried that and was looking for an easier way.
 
Good idea Tom. When multiple objects are selected and rotated in (View) mode they will rotate around a single point calculated from all of the selected object's central axis points. If (Local) is selected then each object will rotate on their own unique pivot point and axis alignment in their own coordinate space.
 
It's not just being sure to set Local, you have to set Pivot Point Centre too: Gmax/Max defaults to Selection Centre when more than one object is selected.

Learning the different coordinate and centre systems was an essential stage of the 'apprenticeship'. ;)
 
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