Pivot Point Problem

[DK]

Hi all,
Imagine a clam shape with a mouth. Looking at it from front on with mouth open it would look a bit similar to two semi circles sitting together with the top semi circle moving up and down in the Y axis and the pivot point at the rear on the Z axis. Now, if the clam was turned sideways the Z axis would be at the far side and the top semi circle would move similar to a clapper board with one end up on an angle and the pivot end remaining still.



So the question is, how would you set up a shape like this using bones and smart bone actions? I tried using layers an no bones and animating the pivot point in smartbone mode but pivot points are not an animate able feature.

Here's the tricky part, I want to attach a set of eyeballs to the front of the clam shape as well.

Can anyone suggest a simple way to do this?

Any ideas?
Thanks
D.K

[DK]

Ahhh...I solved it. Using a smartbone and hiding the visibility of layers.

http://www.creativetvandmedia.com/Forum/Clam.anme


Cheers
D.K

[synthsin75]

If you don't want to mess with visibility of duplicate layers, you could parent the front bone to the hinge bone and bind the points/layer to the front bone. Animating the hinge bone would then move the front bone and points, and animating the front bone would move the points.

If you wanted an animated turn, you could do away with the second upper bone (front or hinge) and make a smart action that moves the bone to and from the hinge position as well as adjusting the points relative to that move.

[DK]

AAH! Thanks Wes...I knew there must be an easier way to do it!

Cheers
D.K

[synthsin75]

Glad to help, David.

[DK]

Hi Wes, I have a new problem and was wondering if you have any ideas how to fix it....I have a texture in the top shape that is point binded to the verticle bone.....when I move the parent bones on either side the texture does not track with the shape. Is there a way you can anchor a texture handle to a bone?

Thanks
DK

EDIT: I placed a couple of small holder bones with just enough strength to keep the image within the two shapes. Seems to be working well. Not sure if there's any other way to do this? I wonder why we cannot parent an image texture placeholder to a bone?

[DK]

Aha!!!....well you CAN parent an image texture handle to a bone...I did not know that!
EDIT: (Actually I just bind the layer it turns out)

Cheers
D.K

[synthsin75]

Aha!!!....well you CAN parent an image texture handle to a bone...I did not know that!

Cheers
D.K

Parent? Are you sure it's not just the bone strength?

[DK]

LOL....actually....not really parent I just bind the layer to the bone but acts almost the same at least the texture handles move with the shape now.... Sorry for the alarm bells moment

Cheers
D.K

[DK]

Actually while we're on this subject Wes....is there a way of copy/pasting a texture fill and maintaining the EXACT position and size of the original copied texture fill? I find that the texture fill always defaults back to a default state when it's pasted.

DK

[synthsin75]

Not that I know of, aside from just copy/paste the shape instead of just the style.

[DK]

Copy and Paste for texture fill seems a bit useless without that function. Maybe I should pop in a request for next release.

D.K

[synthsin75]

One of the problems is that the texture handle is relative to the layer, not the shape. So copy/pasting to a new shape in a different location wouldn't necessarily help. Unless maybe it could be pasted relative to the new shape's bounding box.