I want to make a mechanism similar to a bevel gear.  One gear rotates about three times as fast as the other.

I have key-framed some rotations so the large gear rotates once in one second, and the small gear rotates three times, and it plays perfectly well.

Thoughts and questions:

• I could do a "Collect Clip" and get the rotation added to the "Perform" menu
• But doing that only rotated one gear at a time.
• Is there a fairly easy way to animate the GEAR SET (both at the same time)?
• Would I have to make a master prop with the two gears as sub-props?
• Would it be best for me to use 3DXchange in some way:
• I own 3DXchange, so I can use that or stay in iClone.
• How best to deal with more than one rotation?
• What if I want it to rotate continuously?
• What if I want it to start and stop during a clip?
• How about speed up and slow down?

I hope that gives you enough information to give me some tips and guidance and share some lessons learned.

Thanks.

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iClone 7... Character Creator... Substance Designer/Painter... Blender... Audacity...
Desktop (homebuilt) - Windows 10, Ryzen 9 3900x CPU, GTX 1080 GPU (8GB), 32GB RAM, Asus X570 Pro motherboard, 2TB SSD, terabytes of disk space, dual  monitors.
Laptop - Windows 10, MSI GS63VR STEALTH-252, 16GB RAM, GTX 1060 (6GB), 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD

The use of subprops sounds promising. Create the gear set in Sketchup (or other) and import to 3DX.

@rampa - I already have an acceptable set of gears made using iClone primitives, and they rotate nicely in iClone (for 1 second).  If you think exporting the iProps to 3DXchange is the best path forward, I can give that a whirl.

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iClone 7... Character Creator... Substance Designer/Painter... Blender... Audacity...
Desktop (homebuilt) - Windows 10, Ryzen 9 3900x CPU, GTX 1080 GPU (8GB), 32GB RAM, Asus X570 Pro motherboard, 2TB SSD, terabytes of disk space, dual  monitors.
Laptop - Windows 10, MSI GS63VR STEALTH-252, 16GB RAM, GTX 1060 (6GB), 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD

Hello again,

I'm going to modify my question a bit.

Suppose I have something like a spider or any prop with multiple linkages.  I want to make an animation sequence and be able to apply it to the prop.

What is the best way to go about that?  What are the basic steps in the process?

I went to 3DXchange, assuming it would be fairly straight forward.  So I first tried "non-standard character" rigging, but even non-standard still appears to be targeted toward bipedal (human) type characters.

Can someone at least direct me to a good tutorial?  The ones I'm finding are mostly for rigging "robots" from various geometry, but they all map to a human-like bone structure.

I'm sure I'm missing something basic and simple.

I keep assuming 3DXchange is the correct place to start.

ANOTHER EXAMPLE:  A Jack-in-the-box

What if I wanted the crank to turn three times, the lid to pop open, and "Jack" to pop up WHILE the lid is opening.

In iClone, I'd like to be able to right-click on the prop and pick a "Crank and pop" action.

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iClone 7... Character Creator... Substance Designer/Painter... Blender... Audacity...
Desktop (homebuilt) - Windows 10, Ryzen 9 3900x CPU, GTX 1080 GPU (8GB), 32GB RAM, Asus X570 Pro motherboard, 2TB SSD, terabytes of disk space, dual  monitors.
Laptop - Windows 10, MSI GS63VR STEALTH-252, 16GB RAM, GTX 1060 (6GB), 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD

Post Deleted by me - I was side-tracking when I should be getting-on with my Project :ermm:

My apologies, Dennis.

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      REALLUSION FORUM ANNUAL PINHEAD COMMUNITY PROJECTS.

       New Pinhead Website & Project to be announced in September 2015

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Props have an edit motion layer. Could be more useful than converting to an avatar for two reasons I ca think of.

One. Prop bones can now move as well as rotate in 5.5, for a nice "stretchy" effect.

Two. Props can drive physics interactions directly.

If you need an avatar, convert to "non-human" instead of "non-standard".

Colonel Klink had a similar (though slightly different) question recently. I believe one answer that came up was to remember where the key frames were, merge the props into one prop, add back the key frames and then save the motion. Or something like that. I will see if I can find the original post.


-Edit-
Here we go: https://forum.reallusion.com/Topic152551-298-1.aspx

Oh, non-human... I guess I somehow missed that.

I'll see what I can find about "prop bones."

Also thanks to TheBiz too.  I'll check it out.

(And it's always nice to Colour too, even if it's accidental.)

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iClone 7... Character Creator... Substance Designer/Painter... Blender... Audacity...
Desktop (homebuilt) - Windows 10, Ryzen 9 3900x CPU, GTX 1080 GPU (8GB), 32GB RAM, Asus X570 Pro motherboard, 2TB SSD, terabytes of disk space, dual  monitors.
Laptop - Windows 10, MSI GS63VR STEALTH-252, 16GB RAM, GTX 1060 (6GB), 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD

Okay now, let's get WAY back to BASICS...

1. I created this prop in iClone
2. I attached each object to the one beneath it (see first picture, below)
3. I did NOT do a "merge"
4. (Umm... isn't there an easier way to get it into 3DXchange?  I "Added" my prop to the library, did a "find" to open the directory with the prop, and dragged it into my 3DXchange window.  I was assuming there'd be an "Export to 3DXchange" or "Edit in 3DXchange" like there is when I have an avatar selected.)
5. Why is "Non-standard" my only option (see second picture, below)?  Why isn't "Non-human" a bone rigging option?

I'm just trying to animate a couple of the objects and get it back into iClone with "perform" capability.  Once I figure out the basic process, then I'll work on my real prop.

>>> QUESTION:  Is the root cause because my prop is not already a "bone skinned" prop?

(I actually looked in the 3DXchange manual - gasp! - so that's what made me wonder about that possibility.  If so, how do I "bone" it?)

Figure 1...

Figure 2...

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iClone 7... Character Creator... Substance Designer/Painter... Blender... Audacity...
Desktop (homebuilt) - Windows 10, Ryzen 9 3900x CPU, GTX 1080 GPU (8GB), 32GB RAM, Asus X570 Pro motherboard, 2TB SSD, terabytes of disk space, dual  monitors.
Laptop - Windows 10, MSI GS63VR STEALTH-252, 16GB RAM, GTX 1060 (6GB), 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD

I'm trying to figure this out myself, but I'm missing some very basic information to get me on the right path.

In the iClone HELP page, I search for "non-human" and found something that looked like a good tip.  (They're mostly talking about spring effects, but also "bone-rigged" props.)

It looked like the secret would be to MERGE my prop, but I still don't get any bones in 3DXchange (or iClone).

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iClone 7... Character Creator... Substance Designer/Painter... Blender... Audacity...
Desktop (homebuilt) - Windows 10, Ryzen 9 3900x CPU, GTX 1080 GPU (8GB), 32GB RAM, Asus X570 Pro motherboard, 2TB SSD, terabytes of disk space, dual  monitors.
Laptop - Windows 10, MSI GS63VR STEALTH-252, 16GB RAM, GTX 1060 (6GB), 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD