On Wednesday 23 July 2003 23:07, Frederic Bouvier wrote: > Lee Elliott wrote: > > On Wednesday 23 July 2003 21:02, Frederic Bouvier wrote: > > > I was thinking about scaling for gear actuators too. Would it be > > > possible to scale along an arbitrary axis ? possibly with 3 different > > > scale factors, or is it beyond the scope of this change ? > > > > > > -Fred > > > > I don't think you'd really _want_ to use scaling for animating parts of an > a/c > > model because those parts dont actually change size in real life. Do > they? > > No. I just want to cheat, designing only one part when an actuator > has at least two. > > > At least, the only things I can think of off-hand that actually changed > size > > were the inflatable engine intake edges on very early Harriers. > > > > It would be better to try to figure out how the mechanism you're trying to > > animate actually works, which for fixed size parts is going to consist of > > translations and rotations, and try to duplicate that. This can actually > > make things more consistent and help you out because you know the 'real' > > mechanism worked. > > Yes, it is possible to make 2 parts translating but is is sometimes more > tedious. > Look at the main gear of the A320 when retracting to see what I mean. There > is > no translation yet but combining rotations by hand and calculator is already > a > pain. > > > Trying to mimic the mechanism will also make it possible to simulate > failures > > more accurately - not necessarily the most obvious consideration but it's > a > > strong 'plus' feature. > > -Fred
A few things that I find can really help when working on animations are a) get the x, y & z locations of the axis end points from the 3d prog - then it's relatively easy to get the angles right, b) temporarily bind the animation to one of your joystick axis - then you can test the animations while parked on the ground and you've got better control over them, and c) while you're checking axis angles and locations use a factor of 359 so you get a full rotation about the axis - this makes the location and orientation of the axis a bit clearer to me. Sometimes the order in which you place the animations is vital. What would be great would be a little stand-alone prog we could load the models into just for animation purposes. Even just for checking it would be a help but it wouldn't require much more to turn it into an editor. Completely beyond my capabilities though;) LeeE _______________________________________________ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel
