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Dynamics question
I’m trying to figure out how to set up a stack of objects… say, like planks… that will shuffle down when one in the middle of the stack is removed. So if there are 6 or 8 planks randomly stacked and you remove a plank from the middle, the others kind of fall in to take it’s place. I’m having trouble figuring this out in the dynamics tab. Any help is appreciated.
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15 Replies
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When dynamics is enabled it takes over control — meaning you can’t have dynamics enabled on a plank AND keyframe it to move out of the way. In order to do what you want you need the dynamics to be disabled until the moving plank clears the stack. Make a keyframe with “Enable” unchecked in the Dynamics tags of the upper planks and the moving plank at the point where the moving plank clears the stack (select all of the Dynamics tags to add a keyframe for all at once), and then one frame later keyframe it to be enabled.
For example: 11374_planksdynamics.c4d.zip
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Thanks. Sounds complicated, but I’m going to look at your example and give it a try!
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another possibility (haven’t looked at your file yet but just thinking out loud) is to let the stack settle then turn off the dynamic tag for the one you want to move (turning it into a Collider object) then it could be animated out and the others would drop accordingly. Requires separate planks each with it’s own dynamics tag but if the numbers really are small it wouldn’t be too bad
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Hmmmm. Not working for me. When I turn on the Rigid tag, I can no longer move the plank to take it out of the stack. ??? I know I’m doing something wrong – I keep looking at your example – but can’t figure it out.
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You need to have the dynamics disabled (uncheck “enable”) in order to move the plank using position keyframes. Once its movement is complete, enable dynamics again by keyframing “enable.” As mentioned in my previous post, you need to make a keyframe with “enable” unchecked at a point in time after where you intend to stop moving the plank (in other words, where you stop keyframing its position), and then another keyframe with “enable” checked to again have dynamics take over control.
I have to go to an appointment now, but let me know if you can’t figure it out and I will give you step by step instructions later.
Have fun.
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Good thinking Brian. Your way is better.
Rick, here’s another example using Brian’s suggestion:
Here’s how I set it up:
1) Create all of your planks with Rigid body tags and a Floor with a Collider body tag.
2) Move the planks vertically to separate them.
3) Press play to run the dynamics.
4) Once they fall into place, stop the animation, and with all of the plank’s tags selected click on “Set Initial State.”
4) Return to frame zero.
5) For the plank to be moved laterally (cube.1 in my example) set Dynamic to “Off” to make it a Collider Body.
6) With the above plank selected, move the timeline indicator to the point in time when you would like the plank to start moving and click on the “Record Active Objects” icon (the keyframe symbol within the circle, or F9) to create a position keyframe.
7) Move the timeline indicator to the point in time when you would like the plank to stop, move the plank out of the stack, and create another keyframe.When you play the animation the plank will slide out of the stack and the other planks will drop down.
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Thanks for building that Jim
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My pleasure, Brian. Thanks for all the great input to this forum.
Edit: I hope I didn’t step on any toes by providing an example of your suggestion. Since I gave him my own earlier and had promised more help if he needed it, I thought I should update the project using your better method. 😉
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Thanks.
I’m going to try to get back to this today. Have REAL work to do first. ☺ Thanks for your help. -
Ok… I know this is really dumb. But I’m trying to figure out the easy, correct way to make a simple, iron-like angle piece. I’ve included a snap of the shape. I can’t figure out how to do it. I’ve tried making a spline of the shape, which is what I did here, and extruded it, but there’s no thickness. I tried a cube with polygons and tried to extrude the top ones but that didn’t work. I know this is really easy to do. I’m just stumped. The perspective example is just 4 cubes stuck together. Not right, I know.
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