• Maxon Cinema 4D

  Xpresso (again)

  Posted by Graham Quince on February 27, 2010 at 1:24 pm

  Hi everyone,

  I’m trying something fancy and not sure if it’s possible in Xpresso. I have a Null object controlling a robot arm, but the arm is attached to a door. Ideally, I’d like my Null object alongside my other controllers, grouped together, but when the door swings open, the arm’s end stays with the Null (naturally) – if I move the Null inside the arm, when the door swings open, the arm moves as you would expect (but is now buried deep inside the door group)

  Is it possible using Xpresso, to have an ‘IF’ statement along the lines of:

  IF User Data ‘door open’ > 1%
  THEN Null X.position (range map to) X
  ELSE Null X.position is free

  Obviously I could just animate the arm’s movement to match the door but it seems to make more sense not to have to.

  Graham

  http://www.YouTube.com/ShiveringCactus – Free FX for amateur films

  Graham Quince replied 16 years, 6 months ago 2 Members · 2 Replies
• 2 Replies

• 

  Adam Trachtenberg

  February 27, 2010 at 5:03 pm

  Hey Graham,

  Here’s a setup that does what I think you’re trying to do: https://www.3danvil.com/tutorials/Door_IK_Controller.c4d

  Basically it just sets the position of the arm’s controller null to the position of another null that can be placed anywhere in your heirarchy, but only if the door open slider is set to zero.
• 

  Graham Quince

  February 28, 2010 at 9:19 am

  Thanks for responding Adam, but actually that file was sort of the reverse of what i was looking for. The robot arm has nothing to do with the door mechanism, I wanted to manipulate it’s target so that it wouldn’t change it’s angle when the door opened.

  Actually I have just figured it out myself, I placed my target Null object inside another Null. Then using Xpresso, I can set the parent Null to move with the door bringing the target Null with it. This way I get my controller alongside my other controllers, and have it move correctly with the larger animation.

  Graham

  http://www.YouTube.com/ShiveringCactus – Free FX for amateur films

Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up