leg of cubes, what's the best way?
by Bert Brown
on
May 9, 2008 at 4:20:25 pm
Hi, I've been trying to understand IK and joint stuff, but I get confused with how to apply it.
I'm trying to build a spider like character that has legs made up of just cubes. What would be the best or easiest way to build the leg so that if the spider moved up and down, the legs would bend appropriately?
If it's just a Spline IK situation, how do I apply the spline to the stack of cubes?
----------------------------------
peep my over-the-interweb band, red abbott.
"we electro-rock over long distances..."
Re: leg of cubes, what's the best way? by Cactus Dan on May 10, 2008 at 2:16:27 pm
Howdy,
Well, there are a couple of ways you can do it.
if the cubes are editable objects, you can use the Axis tool to position the cubes' axes so that they're located at the proper pivot points of the leg. Then make sure the Z axis of each one is pointing to the next child object down. Then you can apply the IK directly to the cubes:
http://www.cactus3d.com/IKOnCubes.mov
Or, you can setup the IK on joints, and then piggyback the cubes to the joints by making them children of the joints. But, make sure they're made "second" children of their respective joint so you don't break up the flow of the IK calculation:
http://www.cactus3d.com/CubesOnJoints.mov
Re: leg of cubes, what's the best way? by bert Brown on May 12, 2008 at 2:56:16 pm
this definitely helps, and i really appreciate the videos. they are actually the most helpful because it allows me to see your project and the hierarchy, which is something i'm still a little unsure of.
thanks!
----------------------------------
peep my over-the-interweb band, red abbott.
"we electro-rock over long distances..."
