ctbram
01-28-2010, 12:15 PM
I am calling it a bullet belt for lack of a better name. I have a gattling gun and it will be attached under a helicopter. There is a fixed upper part(see picture the magenta proxy part) and a cannon (lower part - dark grey). The cannon can rotate from 0-51 degrees.
I have made a flexible feed tube / belt consisting of a bullet and a tube link assembly (see picture [A] and [B ]). The strip of bullet link assemblies [A] needs to go between the green ports on the upper section of the gun (magenta) and the gun itself (drey grey).
The flexible feed tube will have to be long enough to elongate and twist when the gun is in position 2 and sag when the gun is in position 1. I thought I could use motion path and motion path snapshot to model the feed tube along a path in the two extreme positions and then morph between them somehow, but motion path is kicking my ass!
When I try to create a motion path of the bullet link assembly along a path between the two green ports I get all kinds of problems. The object spins as it goes along the path, and it flips because the up vector changes, and finally, when I scrub from start to finish the damn thing starts and end in different orientations! I tried for hours to fix things but could not get a decent snapshot to move on to rigging.
Even if I get a decent snapshot of the feed tube in the two extreme positions I am not sure how to go on to the next step of rigging and animating between the two positions.
I could sure use some help or advise.
Thanks.
I have made a flexible feed tube / belt consisting of a bullet and a tube link assembly (see picture [A] and [B ]). The strip of bullet link assemblies [A] needs to go between the green ports on the upper section of the gun (magenta) and the gun itself (drey grey).
The flexible feed tube will have to be long enough to elongate and twist when the gun is in position 2 and sag when the gun is in position 1. I thought I could use motion path and motion path snapshot to model the feed tube along a path in the two extreme positions and then morph between them somehow, but motion path is kicking my ass!
When I try to create a motion path of the bullet link assembly along a path between the two green ports I get all kinds of problems. The object spins as it goes along the path, and it flips because the up vector changes, and finally, when I scrub from start to finish the damn thing starts and end in different orientations! I tried for hours to fix things but could not get a decent snapshot to move on to rigging.
Even if I get a decent snapshot of the feed tube in the two extreme positions I am not sure how to go on to the next step of rigging and animating between the two positions.
I could sure use some help or advise.
Thanks.