Ferris Wheel

[manksy]

Hello everyone,

New to the forum and signed up to get some help with this question. I started using anime studio about a year ago and got pretty comfortable making figures and using bones to animate etc. After a bit of a break I am using it for a project I have currently taken on.

I am making an animated scene using some work from a kindergarten class and as part of it is a ferris wheel.
Here is the ferris wheel as visible with all layers:


I have all of the cars as separate layers and the wheel frame itself as its own layer. Using the z rotate I have created a very satisfactory rotation for the wheel.
Here is the wheel without the cars:





However, I am at a loss as to how to make the cars work!
Ideally I would be able to attach each car to a point on the wheel so they move along as the wheel rotates. I would also need to set some sort of anchor or rule that makes each car stay vertical as it rotates with the wheel.

Is this possible and if so how would I go about doing it?

Thanks for any help!

[slowtiger]

Yes, that's possible.

Ideally you'd have a setup like this:

- wheel layer (rotated 90°)
- - group layer
- - - car group layer 1 - 15 (rotated -90°)
- - - - car artwork

I never remember which axis should get rotated, so I just play around with it in orbit view until I find the right one.

Tip: I do all animation with 1 car first, then I duplicate this as often as I need and just exchange the artwork. I set the car group layer's origin so it matches the pivot of the gondola.

[Víctor Paredes]

I would use bone rotation instead of layer rotation.
Create a parent bone for the wheel and child bones for each car. Bind the wheel image to the parent bone and each car to each child bone.
Then select all the bones but the wheel, and go to bone constraints window. Set an Angle rotation constraint to "wheel" (or B1 or whatever name the wheel bone has) and set "-1" as value.
Making that, each time you rotate the wheel, the cars will rotate in the opposite angle, keeping always pointing to de same angle.

[slowtiger]

*slaps head* of course! That's a much simpler solution. I was still stuck in my trailer which required some 3D, which is not the case here.

[hammerjammer]

Hello All,

I was just passing through the How do I section of the forum and found this thread and thought that I would it a try myself.
That is Flipping amazing, and so simple too.

That is something I didn't even know you could do with the bones.
The only things I've ever used in the "Bone Constraints" pull down box, is Angle Constraints and Bone Dynamics.
I really should read the manual sometime.

Thanks to Mansky for asking this question.
AND
Thanks to Selgin for the tip.

HammerJammer

[hammerjammer]

Hello All,

I was convinced that this could be done with physics as well, So I gave it a try.
I did get it to work, however Selgins version using Bones makes more sense and it is much easier to set up.

I apologize for the crudeness of the artwork and what not, I created this just for proof of concept.

Here's a copy of the file if anyone would like to check it out.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/o9kxupkxok7sj ... rsion.anme

And this is the photo of the wheel I used. I couldn't get dropbox to give me a link of the folder with both of them together. (sorry)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9lk9g7jnlm7l0 ... %20PNG.png

HammerJammer

[manksy]

Thanks for the advice!

This seems simple enough and I have attempted it.
I created the parent bone and bound the wheel and then child bones for each car and bound them( I have named this bone later 'wheel').
However, after selecting the child bones and going to bone constraints under angle control 'wheel' is not a selectable option, all that is available is <none>.
Any thoughts?

[hammerjammer]

Thanks for the advice!

This seems simple enough and I have attempted it.
I created the parent bone and bound the wheel and then child bones for each car and bound them( I have named this bone later 'wheel').
However, after selecting the child bones and going to bone constraints under angle control 'wheel' is not a selectable option, all that is available is <none>.
Any thoughts?

Ok here's what I think your doing wrong.
Your going to want to select one of the car bones (NOT YOUR CENTER WHEEL BONE), THEN click on the bones constraints window Then under the Angle control bone pull down as seen in selgins pictures from above, You NOW should see you wheel bone. Then do this again for each of the other cars.
oh ya, and don't forget to enter the -1 setting next to each of them.

I hope this helped. If I understood what you were asking.

HammerJammer

[manksy]

thanks for trying to help me out!

I still can't get it to work (no wheel selection available in bone constraints)

here is an image of what is going on:



Any help would be appreciated greatly!

Thanks!

[heyvern]

If you want to use a bone as a "target" for a constraint, it MUST have a name. The bone being constrained or controlled does not need a name.

[manksy]

So each of the car bones needs to be unique?
Doesn't that eliminate the parent-child bone relationship?

[jahnocli]

So each of the car bones needs to be unique?
Doesn't that eliminate the parent-child bone relationship?

No. A parent can have lots of children and control them all (if he or she is lucky...)

[manksy]

please check my sample above. I have named the bone layer for the wheel and all the cars 'wheel', is there something I am doing wrong here or something I need to do additionally?

[Víctor Paredes]

please check my sample above. I have named the bone layer for the wheel and all the cars 'wheel', is there something I am doing wrong here or something I need to do additionally?

No, in this case, the only bone which needs a name is the bone in the center, the one which rotates the wheel. Then you select all the other bones (the need no name or one different to "wheel") and go to bone constraints to select "wheel" as the angle controller.

[funksmaname]

You named the bone LAYER, not the bone itself. The empty yellow box next to the bone constraints drop down is the area to name bones - if it's empty when you select one, it doesn't have a name, so select the wheel bone and type 'wheel' in that yellow box. After that, you can select the child bones and 'wheel' will show as a constraint option.

Also, you might want to turn on 'automatically name bones' in the preferences menu - it can save some time when you don't really need descriptive names.