In this tutorial I’ll show you a quick tip for using the align to spline tag in conjunction with the spline rail. It’s a really important tip if you’re having trouble having an item travel along a path while having the correct rotation.
Actually you can also try rotating the axis of the jack to mae it follow the spline. This also works most of the time.
And as for the growing of cabel and movement of the jack – to make tham move and grow with same speed you should change the Intermediate Points in the spline (in your scene Helix) to Uniform or Subdivided. This way you won’t have to check so that the jack and cable stick together all the frames.
Good tut. I found it easier to align a null object to the spline and then add a character constraint tag to the actual object using the tag “Character>constraint”. Select PSR and dragging the null into the target. Now you can “offset” rotation however you see fit.
Hey Joren,
I recently worked on a project like this and came up with a alternate version of this example using Mospline. Feel free to download and share. In my version I created Mospline and used a Helix as my Reference Spline. Animated the End in Mospline. I also added the plug to a cloner and set it my Object to mospline and offset to 99.8 and used a count of 1. This way it follows my initial Mospline animation so I only used 2 keyframes. This way since its mospline you can use all the effectors to it like Formula so it adds movement to the spline.. Hope you enjoy..
Thanks for the tip, Joren. It’s exactly what I need for an upcoming project!
Thank You!! I dont know how many time I have just drew a blank on how to fix this.
just amazing! always love your shorts and sooo useful tutorials. this stuff is amazing. save huge time!
thanks and greetings from argentina.
Actually you can also try rotating the axis of the jack to mae it follow the spline. This also works most of the time.
And as for the growing of cabel and movement of the jack – to make tham move and grow with same speed you should change the Intermediate Points in the spline (in your scene Helix) to Uniform or Subdivided. This way you won’t have to check so that the jack and cable stick together all the frames.
Good luck and thank you.
Thank you so much. Wish I had this tip in my last project… You are the best!!!!
What timing! I need this tip for something I’m working on right now! T H A N K S !!!!!
Good tut. I found it easier to align a null object to the spline and then add a character constraint tag to the actual object using the tag “Character>constraint”. Select PSR and dragging the null into the target. Now you can “offset” rotation however you see fit.
I really love your tuts, Joren!
Thank you very much for this. I usually forget how to do this, so I added it to my favorites.
great tip thanx!
Hey Joren,
I recently worked on a project like this and came up with a alternate version of this example using Mospline. Feel free to download and share. In my version I created Mospline and used a Helix as my Reference Spline. Animated the End in Mospline. I also added the plug to a cloner and set it my Object to mospline and offset to 99.8 and used a count of 1. This way it follows my initial Mospline animation so I only used 2 keyframes. This way since its mospline you can use all the effectors to it like Formula so it adds movement to the spline.. Hope you enjoy..
http://74.91.240.40/MoSpline_Example.c4d.zip
Awesome! Thanks for sharing!