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Tutorials LightWave 3D Animation Basics: Rotating a moon around a planet Qua Jan 26, 2011 2:16 am
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| by Tony Carretti |
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So, you've finally decided to do that really cool space scene, right? Yeah I know, no one likes to admit it, but everyon HAS to do at least one. It's like when you learn to play the guitar it's "de riguer" to learn how to play Stairway to Heaven..... Well, the good thing about it is that in the process, you're going to learn how to use NULL objects to control another object's orbit without interfering with it's rotatation around it's own axis. In modeler we're going to create an object with two layers. On layer one we're going to make a BALL which will represent our earth. Under the CREATE tab, click on the BALL button and start to draw out a ball in the BACK viewport.   Rather than try to make it perfectly round, open the NUMERIC window and simply input the size that you want the ball to be.For our purposes, let's make it 1 meter in the X,Y and Z.  When your done doing this, hit F2 to center the ball at the 0,0,0 coordinates. This will put the ball at the very center of our "universe" kind of like what everyone thought before Galileo put in his two cents. Under the DETAILS tab, click on the SURFACE button or simply use the keyboard shortcut "q". Name this surface something clever, like EARTH! Now, activate the second layer and create another BALL. This time let's make it a little smaller. In the NUMERIC window make the size 100mm in the X,Y and Z size spinners.  Again, hit F2 to center the new ball. Give this one the surface name: MOON. Great, save the object in the directory of your choice as orbit_tutorial.lwo We're ready to set this up for animation now. Open LAYOUT and under the ITEMS tab choose ADD/LOAD OBJECT. Browse to the directory where you saved the orbit_tutorial.lwo object and double click on it.  You should see only one ball there. That's because the smaller "moon" is placed at the exact same coordinates as the earth. Select orbit_tutorial: layer2 from the drop down list and drag it over to the left away from the earth.  Now we need to add two NULLS to be able to control our moon's orbit and bank angle around the earth. Click on ADD/ADD NULL OBJECT and name it orbit_control.  Do this again but name this null bank_control. This will place the two nulls at the very center of our universe. Now we have some parenting to do. Select the orbit_control NULL. Hit "m" on the keyboard to open the MOTION OPTIONS dialogue box and parent it to the bank_control NULL.   Now select the orbit_tutorial:layer2 and parent it to theorbit_control NULL.  OK, now we're ready to go. Change the animation end frame to 120. At frame 0, rotate the bank_control NULL 20 degrees in it's bank position and make a keyframe.  Move the frame slider to frame 120. Select the orbit_control and set it's HEADING to 359 degrees.  Now select orbit_tutorial: layer2 while still at frame 120 and set it's HEADING to 719 degrees.  That's it! IF you rewind and play your animation, you'll see the moon rotating around the earth with a nice bank while it spins on it's own axis. You can use this same method to rotate text around and object, like the Universal Pictures logo. Try to think up some different ways you can use this and most of all, have fun! Below there's a link to see what this animation looks like with some textures added. Download Movie and Source Files here Tony Carretti is a freelance 3D artist. Feel free to contact him at: [Tens de ter uma conta e sessão iniciada para poderes visualizar este link] or visit his website at: [Tens de ter uma conta e sessão iniciada para poderes visualizar este link] |
