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anchor point changes based on angle to parented null. what?
Hello all,
I’m slowly learning expressions, but this is beyond me. Overall, what I don’t understand is how to control an anchor point value based on an object’s location in 3D space. I really hope someone can help.
I have a ring of solids parented to and orbiting around a null. Here is a link to download the project
https://www.sendspace.com/pro/0ock84
What I can’t figure out is how to do the following things:
1. When the solids rotate close to the camera, I would like the anchor point to be manipulated so that the solid comes closer to the active camera as if they were being showcased. It would be good if this were easy-eased over a long enough period of time that 3 of the solids are being effected at once. (the overall effect is somewhat similar to the genie effect of the Mac OSX dock icons.)
2. At the same time, I would like to have an expression that controls the y-axis of the solids’ anchor points as they are on the right and left hand side of the ring. Probably using a slider control, the effect I’m going for is that the solids go up and down on the left and right side of the ring. But they are always counter to each other, so if the right is up then the left is down etc. Am I making sense here?
3. The other thing that I almost have figured out myself is that I want the objects, no matter where the camera is, to look towards the camera. So far, I’ve done this: I auto-orientated all of the solids, then turned that off, then inserted an expression on each solid’s y-axis to counteract the parented motion of the null. Looks almost there, but if I rotate the nulls z-axis, the solids don’t follow suit, and the trick that I used to fix the y-axis doesn’t do the same trick.
Please feel free to ask me any questions if anything needs clarification.
I know this is a long message and a lot to ask for, but I’m stuck. Can anyone help?
Thanks so much,
KevinSystem Setup (for a more detailed list, see my profile)
HARDWARE
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AJA Kona LHe SD/HD capture card
Apple Xserve Raid 5.6TBSOFTWARE
Mac OS X 10.4.11
Final Cut Pro Studio 2
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Digital Anarchy Anarchist Suite
ParticleIllusion 3.0
Trapcode
Zaxwerks -
1 Reply
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Well, I have figured out #2 and #3 from my initial post, but I am still stuck on #1. I think I now want the floating solids to increase in scale when it is nearest the camera. The idea is that is is being temporarily selected and therefore is larger. Any ideas on how to achieve this? It’s beyond my current scripting ability.
Thanks,
KevinSystem Setup (for a more detailed list, see my profile)
HARDWARE
Mac Pro 2 x 3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
9GB Memory
Two 16x SuperDrives
Dual-channel 2Gb Fibre Channel PCI Express card
Apple Cinema HD Display (23″ flat panel)
ATI Radeon X1900 XT Graphics Card
AJA Kona LHe SD/HD capture card
Apple Xserve Raid 5.6TBSOFTWARE
Mac OS X 10.4.11
Final Cut Pro Studio 2
After Effects CS3
Photoshop CS3
Illustrator CS3
Boris Continuum 5
Sapphire Plug Ins
Roxio Toast
Digital Anarchy Anarchist Suite
ParticleIllusion 3.0
Trapcode
Zaxwerks
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