Path Animation


It could be difficult to animate the flight of an airplane just by setting keyframes because of the number of keyframes that would be required to simulate the detail of the rotation and direction of the plane. Sometimes you'll want to establish the path first and then simply send the object along that path. Maya can even make an object automatically bank around turns and point in the direction of the path.

To animate along a path:

1.

Create a curve in the Top view (Figure 12.63). (See Chapter 7 for more on creating curves.)

Figure 12.63. This curve is drawn in the top view.


2.

From the Create menu, select NURBS Primitives > Cone.

3.

Select the cone; then -select the curve.

4.

From the Animate menu, select Motion Paths > Attach to Motion Path.

The cone jumps to the beginning of the curve, and when the animation is played back, it moves along the curve.

5.

With the cone still selected, click motionPath1 in the Channel Box.

6.

Enter 90 in the Side Twist field so that the cone points down the path (Figure 12.64).

Figure 12.64. The different twists are needed to orient the cone. You cannot simply rotate the cone because its rotate attributes are controlled by the path animation.


When the animation is played back now, you can see how the rotation of the cone follows the path (Figure 12.65).

Figure 12.65. This is the resulting path animation.




    Maya for Windows and Macintosh
    MAYA for Windows and MacIntosh
    ISBN: B002W9GND0
    EAN: N/A
    Year: 2004
    Pages: 147
    Authors: Danny Riddell

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