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I'm sure that some of the more seasoned animators here have dealt with a thing like this before...I can't seem to find much documentation on Max's animation constraint system to get myself oriented, so my head is full of ideas that are probably not even applicable to the program. What I have rigged up now is a simple hinged door and a pair of pivoting support rods on either side that have been constrained with a "LookAt", aimed at a dummy object linked to a part of the door where it attaches. This works without problems (as you can see in the beginning and end frames below) and collapsing it to linear keyframes should be smooth sailing into the sim.
The issue I face right now is getting all of the rod's segments to collapse proportionally into one another as the door is "pulled" into its closed position, while keeping both ends at their respective anchor points. I'm just not sure how to rig this without creating a hierarchy loop, which is what seems to happen every time I try to animate something mechanical.
If anyone can help I'd greatly appreciate it.
The issue I face right now is getting all of the rod's segments to collapse proportionally into one another as the door is "pulled" into its closed position, while keeping both ends at their respective anchor points. I'm just not sure how to rig this without creating a hierarchy loop, which is what seems to happen every time I try to animate something mechanical.
If anyone can help I'd greatly appreciate it.