#46 - Animation - Animation Techniques 6

This exercise was much more successful than some of the previous ones. I had no difficulty in using the various constraint tools to make objects interact with each other. The first constraint tool I tried was the point constrain tool, which makes an object follow a master object. I simply selected the objects in the right order, used the tool, then set some key frames before rendering just to show the motion of the objects. This could be useful for keeping objects orbiting around a sun object, or around a bigger ship. It might be used to keep the Invisible Hand and the Venator at the same distance from each other throughout the animation. Of course there are also many possibilities for the camera to use this tool. This was quite a simple thing to do, so there isn't much else to say.



Another constraint tool I tried was the aim constrain tool. Again, this was very simple to use. I just selected my two objects and applied the aim to them. I had to set the aim vector to use the Y-axis on the cylinder, so that it would aim at an angle where you can see it move. Again, not much else to say other than this could be a really useful tool for my turrets on the Venator destroyer., For example, if something flies past them they can track it and potentially fire at it. Only issue here is that according to my story board the Venator is far away and doesn't see much action. but I could always get creative later and add extra stuff in.


Next I tried using the orient constrain tool. It tool me a couple of minutes to figure out what this did, until I tried rotating an object an the second object rotated with it. Evidently this tool is designed to make an object stay at the same rotation as its master object. I could use this in my animation to keep asteroids or even ship engines spinning at the same rate. The parent constrain tool works in exactly the same way, except instead of rotation it maintains the master objects position, and the scale constrain tool works in the same way but maintains the master objects size. If something were to blow up in my animation, it would have to expand first, and the scale constrain could keep everything expanding at the same rate. Alternatively, if a ship warps, all the components of the ship could expand and distort together before disappearing.


The final constrain tool I tried using was the pole vector constrain. This is a much more complex constraint designed mainly for skeletal structures. It was difficult for me to test this, and ultimately I gave up, but the point of a pole vector is to limit the points where an object can cross, for example, stopping an arm flipping inside out or something like that. This is not something I can imagine myself using in my animation, so I shall move on for now.

Aside from not being able to try the pole vector constraint, after using each type of constraint I have come up with plenty of ideas on how to use them to improve the efficiency of my animation, not just the quality, or how realistic it looks. Rather than setting frames for two objects I can do it for one and the other will follow automatically.

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