Hi:

I have searched the forum for Perform and Perform Menu.  I have certainly seen animation clips for various actors that are linked to the Perform menu which is available by right clicking the actor / avatar.

What I have not found (including the manual) is a way to create / attach the framework to my aircraft (My ongoing V22 animation).  Now that I have the propellers rotating, I have many more parts to animate and it would be nice to be able to click select them from a menu, at least to get them operational and tested (what is a realistic time to lift the gear and close the doors - which I can get from actual video footage).  I would then like to be able to save various clips so that when I try to put a path and timeline in place, I could drop the clip on the timeline.

To animate a whole timeline, I can envision a takeoff where I would close the doors, start the props from stopped, one motor at a time and then bring them up to speed (the 50 maximum on the force option is not fast enough), and lift the aircraft off the ground.  Next would be to retract the gear and close the bays, and since this is a V22, the engines would rotate from vertical lift to horizontal thrust and the aircraft would depart.

I'd like to get all the different parts working properly with the aircraft sitting in front of me. 

If someone can head me in the right direction to get started, I would really appreciate it.


Thanks

Tim  

There are surely times when it is good to be stubborn.  Knowing when is the gift of experience.

http://manual.reallusion.com/iClone_6/ENU/Pro_6.0/09_Animation_Timeline_Editing/Collect_Clip_Track.htm

Learn this and the rest will come to you.  If nothing else, attach all your separately collected animation parts to a "DUMMY" and use it as your ROOT of the hierarchy. 

SKYPE ID: rc.650

http://city.reallusion.com/store/ModuleExpand.aspx?id=GS634545170497417354&mdid=18866

http://city.reallusion.com/ContentTag.aspx?tagname=Cricky&AuthorID=20081020688550191201#]Reallusion Store Content

" If I had Alzheimer's (Old Timers), would I know it? "

Watch Mark's video tute on this very topic here:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGtGZ82PM3o

Mark, Warlord and Rampa especially have done loads of videos covering just about everything there is to know in iClone. I'd highly recommend them.

Thanks very much!!  

Exactly what I was looking for.

Tim

There are surely times when it is good to be stubborn.  Knowing when is the gift of experience.

Hi:

No, I didn't give up.  I am looking for suggestions on dealing with physics, and rotational constraints specifically.  I can't get what I am doing to match what is happening in the tutorials.  No doubt it is me.

Before getting to this point, I took my V22 model and I manually key framed ALL of the animation.  It was a lot of work and it took me a long time, because I have never really done it before.  I did the main landing gear from 0 to -80, the nose gear from 0 to +90.  I did my propeller assemblies, one with positive rotation and one with negative.  They are in sync with each other.  I stayed with increments of 40 degrees as the max rotation per step as it looks more realistic than 60 degree steps.  I did my motors from 0 (straight up) to -90 (pointed forward).  I used the same pivot point between the props and the motors so that the props rotate correctly even while the motors are rotating.

Now I am trying to do the animation with the physics window instead of keyframing it manually.

Every time I try to add a rotational constraint through the physics window, I end up getting something at least 90 degrees out along one axis.  Maybe it's to do with x,y,z directions from the original modeling software or something I'm not setting into or out of one of the packages.  In this case it is Blender to 3dxchange to IClone6.

What I have been doing works, but it is not the right way I'm sure.  I am pulling the constraint directly out of the Add Constraint window and manually adding it to the object that I wish to animate.  I line up my Pivot Point between the hinge and the object and apply a force along the axis  I want.  That's not too bad when the alignment is on a specific axis.  I then set my force and the constraint angles.  In my timeline, I do have my animation in the animation line of the object which was the goal.

Where I am looking for help is on the wing assembly for example.  The wing leading and trailing edges are on an angle, (so not 90 degrees from the body)  I have tried to set the hinge in the center of the object (from left to right along the flap or airelon for example) and angled to match the angle of the wing.  I line up my pivot points between the hinge and the object, but it is brutal trying to find the right place and the right angles.  My object invariably is out of position with the wing for alignment.  Either it's out with one end too high and the other too low, or the left end is back too far and the right end forward too far, or any number of other misfortunes.  I can't seem to get it to stay in line with the trailing edge of the wing.

In short, there must be a better way that isn't mostly guessing.

best,

Tim

There are surely times when it is good to be stubborn.  Knowing when is the gift of experience.

Ok

There is a big difference between moving an object by it's pivot point, or just moving it especially if you click on the option to move the pivot point.

I had set up all my pivot points in 3dxchange, so when I double clicked in the content folder, they came in where they were supposed to relative to the object.  

I'm not sure my pivot point moved with the object when I moved the object, but if I moved the object by moving the pivot point, they stayed together.  Am I getting in trouble with local vs global space again?

I got things lined up by selecting the option to move the pivot point,  With that selection active, I moved my object where it was supposed to be.  I then reset my pivot point to what it had been before I moved the object.

Maybe I'm nuts, or just confused by everything I was moving around, but it took me hours to get things lined up.  Everything was perfect to look at, but when I pushed run on the animation, part of my motor assembly flipped 90 degrees.  I set the option to adjust the pivot point and then rotated the object to where it was supposed to be, even though the object was linked to another object in the assembly that did not flip out on me.

Any wisdom welcome.

Thanks,

Tim

There are surely times when it is good to be stubborn.  Knowing when is the gift of experience.

Each part that rotates needs it's pivot at its point of rotation.

Your propeller pivot should be in the center of your propeller. Your engine pivot should be in the center of your engine. Etc. Landing gear needs its pivot at its top where it rotates to tuck into the plane. Think about the actual mechanical device, and assemble it as such.

For parts that are attached to something else, and do not rotate themselves, it doesn't really matter where their pivot is.

Here is the iClone 5 pivot manual page. It is the same in iClone 6, just darker gray.
https://www.reallusion.com/iclone/help/iclone5/PRO/11_Props/Prop/Pivot_of_Prop.htm

@rampa

Hello and thank you for your input.  I had reviewed the manual page several times for information on pivot points,

Of particular note today is the note below which I had not seen.  This is the key to my issues.  Thank you

Tim

Note:

Please refer to the World or Local Axis section for more information on the reason that you need to rotate the pivot orientation.

There are surely times when it is good to be stubborn.  Knowing when is the gift of experience.

Observations

In 3DXchange6, I have exported only the items associated with the right hand propeller assembly
I selected each of them and created a sub prop.
I could not use the editor to view or modify the pivot point.
I selected the option for Z is up (instead of Y)

Doubleclicked the item in IClone6 Content to bring it up.  World view shows Z is up.  Local view is the same looking at the rotation ring relative to the axis map.

Ok, I had another picture in here showing the pivot point at 0,0,0 when the object came it.  Here I have aligned the pivot point to be 

156,-704,274





I have added a hinge.  The hinge is located at 156,-704,294.  Rotation is set as Y= -90.
In limits, Axis is set to free.  Force has been activated at 1 unit.
Now I hit Play



Why did the spinner rotate 90 degrees and how do I fix this to avoid it in the future?  Everything was aligned around the same planes!
Is the spinner acting on the Y= -90 that I set for rotation?  That is there so that the spinner rotates around the Y axis.

Is this a bug in the software?

Please help

Tim

There are surely times when it is good to be stubborn.  Knowing when is the gift of experience.

This might be helpful.  I'm not sure, but the spinner is the main object to which everything is attached in order.

There are surely times when it is good to be stubborn.  Knowing when is the gift of experience.