[Bf-funboard] Parenting constraints

Chris Want bf-funboard@blender.org
Tue, 08 Jul 2003 19:50:55 -0600


Daniel Fairhead wrote:
>>Here's a real-world question - and one that I've
>>actually run into concerning parenting and
>>constraints:
>>How do you simply animate two characters playing catch
>>with a ball, throwing it back and forth between them? 
>>With the current system you could have the ball
>>constrained to copy the location of both character's
>>hands, then edit the IPO to influence the ball only
>>while in the possession of one character at a time, I
>>suppose.  An easier way might be to edit the
>>inheritance of two parents, if the parenting system
>>were a little more elaborate?  Just curious. 
> 
> 
> Call me old-fasioned, but I'd animate it without constraints
> or parenting, using direct IPO positioning.

Call me *really* old fashioned, but I would have 3 copies
of the ball (one parented to each guys' hand, and a third
one that is 'free'). As the ball is released from a character's
hand the ball in his hand jumps to an invisible layer, and
the free ball jumps from an invisible layer to a visible
layer. The free ball travels to character #2, and as it
reaches his hand it jumps to an invisible layer, and the
ball that is paranted to character #2's hand jumps from an
invisible layer to a visible one. The cycle continues ...

It's not pretty, but it's easy to set up with layer keys
instead of constraints.

Chris