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Pilots Hand - Stick Animation

B

Brother23

Messages
184
Country
germany
Hi folks!

Currently I try to animation a pilots hand that moves smoothly with the stick. But how i must see, I cant use inverse kinematics here.

So how have you solved the problem of the wrong moving hand?
 
Brother23 said:
Hi folks!

Currently I try to animation a pilots hand that moves smoothly with the stick. But how i must see, I cant use inverse kinematics here.

So how have you solved the problem of the wrong moving hand?
Click to expand...

You need to key_frame animate the parts of the arm, shoulder, hand that move, and name them as though they were part of the control stick/yoke, and also create a dummy control node for them, e.g.,

lever_stick_fore_aft_01
lever_stick_l_r_01

et cetera.
 
Hi N4Gix!

Yes, the animation tags are clear. But I had the problem that I need
three rotation axises where I only have to (left-right fore-aft) to cleanly
attach the hand to the stick. But how I see this here, this problem is
solve with more than two bones for the arm AND an additional axis
per bone through the dummy?!

So the bones are not in a chain, the dummies are and the bone attached
to them?
 
You don't need "bones" at all. In fact, in this case they'd simply be a waste of polygons.

Instead, use small objects (such as a tiny cube or even a single triangle poly) and name them with the approriate animation names.

Key-frame animate the control objects, and Link the mesh to them.

interior
....lever_stick_fore_aft_01
.......left shoulder mesh
.........lever_stick_l_r_01
............left forearm
...............left hand
....lever_stick_fore_aft_02
.......right shoulder mesh
.........lever_stick_l_r_02
............right forearm
...............right hand
 
In other words, don't approach the problem from an IK/bones animation point of view. Approach it from a straight forward key frame animation point of view. All your motions will be basically left/right up/down, and with each key frame, you'll have to animate just the right amount of "twist".

Think old fashioned hand-drawn animation.
 
I try to go to the direct way...

...but I want the pilot mesh in one piece.

Am I right that you cut the arms completely from the pilots body,

cut the lower arm from the upper arm?

If the answer is yes, then thats not what I speak about.

I have the pilot perfect skinned. The arm follow the bones beautifully.

So when I rotate the bones I never get proper following to the stick.

Their motion is not as synchronized as I want.

I see you use also a complex hierachrchie for that motion, I currently not

fully understand. Oh my dear....
 
I think that this is rapidly becoming a "just because you can do it in gmax, doesn't mean the FS will take to it..."

Let me ask a broader question... do IK/Bones animations in FS work as a result of an external variable .... (example - wing flex, as a result of the g-forces on the airplane) rather than from a user input (which is what an arm going with the control stick would be...)
 
Brother23 said:
...but I want the pilot mesh in one piece.I see you use also a complex hierachrchie for that motion, I currently not

fully understand. Oh my dear....
Click to expand...

FS9 does not and never has supported IK animations. Period. :eek:

FSX on the other hand DOES support IK animations. :D

Oddly enough though, FS9 does support face extrusions, but thus far I haven't thought of a single thing that'd be useful to accomplish.
Imagine though some "thing" that slowly rises from underground and rapidly "grows taller..." :stirthepo
 
Last edited:
Is this an enigma LOL?

When FSX supports IK chains, how can I activate them?

I havent found much in the SDK. Are there naming conventions or how
can I bring light in that?

Greetings
 
I will use...

...Polymesh for the arms. The bone and IK environment is not friendly enough to use it flexible.

So I tend to a mix between polymesh for the arms(because I also can tweak
the geometry at every time) and bones for legs and head.

The head should not look like Mr. Ken, because of that i single axis bone
is the right choice I guess.

Greetings
 
Problem solved...

...the hard way. I corrected a thousand times during a whole night.

Its brute force yeah, but the task is finished.

Greeting
 
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