I. SLOW PARENT (parent offset animation)
I looked around for information about Slow Parent, and only after 7-8 websites, I found the right information. Apparently in the past, Slow Parent is useful when we parent a camera to follow an object with slight offset for more natural camera movement. Used often in Game Engine.
Let see how we can set it up. Simple example:
1. With the default Cube selected, duplicate it few times and move each one slightly up above the Cube before, in Z axis. The quick way to perform this kind of thing is:
- Shift D to duplicate
- MMB click drag in direction you want to move constraint the axis
- LMB click to confirm the new location
- Shift R to Repeat Last Action (duplicate and move)
2. Next, parent every single Cube duplicated mesh to the one next below it. The master will be the default Cube at 0,0,0. Ctrl+P is shortcut to parent one object to another.
3. Activate Slow Parent.
I thought that I could turn on the feature just by tapping Space and selecting "Set Slow Parent". Nope, apparently that command is useless.
We must go to the "Relationship Extras" subpanel under Object Property:
Inside this subpanel, you will find Slow Parent option box and the Offset value (in frames). There are also other options for you to try yourself.
4. Slow Parent Activated and Offseted.
Now, you can see the effect of Slow Parent by moving around the Master Cube and set some keyframe animations and see the result.
If you found this feature interesting, check out LIERO's script "Slow Parent Fun". Find his script at Blender Artist forum.
References:
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Iizo7nrpS4
- http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?216705-slow-parent-fun
II. HOOK (the reverse of object parent to vertex)
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.6/Manual/Modifiers/Deform/Hooks
http://www.blender.org/development/release-logs/blender-235a/object-hooks/
Have you ever thought of parenting a Single Vertex or Multiple Grouped Vertices to an Object transform, in the way it would behave like a Proportional Editing tool? Apparently you can do that with Hook Modifier.
The easiest is by selecting some Vertex in Edit Mode, grow the vertex selection maybe (CTRL+Plus or CTRL+Minus) and then CTRL+H to Hook.
I usually select Hook to New Object and change the object later. When you choose Hook to New Object, you will make the Vertex parented to new Empty.
When you jump back to Object Mode, you will see an Empty is controlling those vertex.
You can further adjust the influence etc under the Modifier Property. You can even adjust the Vertex Group, a lot of flexibility!
Imagine doing something with Dynamic Paint with this. Sticky gum effect?
III. MOUSE MOTION CAPTURE
This, you probably already know. When you have the Auto Key Frame turned ON, when you are doing Playback (Alt+A), and you actually do some Transform (move, rotate, scale) on the object selected, you will record the actions on every frame.
So, if you are selecting the default Cube for example, and then while selected, you do Playback (Alt+A), and then tap G and start moving the cube around in 3D Viewport, you will record and capture the motion in realtime. And you can see some keyframes animation being generated in real time for every single frame where there is a change in values.
Make sure you stop moving or hit Escape after Playback reaches the end of it will do looping and you will override previous mocap.
To quickly delete all the keyframes, simply delete them via the Channel Box (Clear Keyframes)
See also:
https://sites.google.com/site/pointatstuffweb/
IV. MOTION PATH
This feature is really handy whenever you want to see the motion path of your keyframe animation.
Above is the Motion Path of the mouse motion capture animation.
See also:
https://sites.google.com/site/bartiuscrouch/scripts/motion_trail
Post a Comment