Path Animation


It can be difficult to animate the flight of an airplane just by setting keyframes because of the number of keyframes required to simulate the detail of the rotation and the direction of the plane. Sometimes you want to establish the path first and then 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.

Choose Create > NURBS Primitives > Cone.

3.

Select the cone; then -select the curve.

4.

Choose Animate > 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 can't 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 7 for Windows and Macintosh(c) Visual Quickstart Guide
Maya 7 for Windows & Macintosh
ISBN: 0321348990
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 185

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