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Animation (Gmax) Tutorials?

Are your animations using Local reference coordinate system? They will follow the pivot's orientation if they do, but if using the default View rcs they won't. That's the little box on the toolbar which says View by default.

BTW, Reset XForm will reset scale and transform, there's no need to do the other two as well, and Reset XForm aligns the pivot to world, not the object.
 
hairyspin said:
Are your animations using Local reference coordinate system? They will follow the pivot's orientation if they do, but if using the default View rcs they won't. That's the little box on the toolbar which says View by default.

BTW, Reset XForm will reset scale and transform, there's no need to do the other two as well, and Reset XForm aligns the pivot to world, not the object.
Click to expand...

Local reference system? It was not set to Local. It is/was now and I walked right through getting it set up correctly in about 10 seconds. Would you believe me if I said I've been pulling hair for the past day and a half trying to resolve it!! :isadizzy: I recalled reading about a similar situation somewhere. For the life of me I could not remember where.

Note taken on the reset, scale, xform.

Thanks much!! :salute:
 
All is well with the control alignments. What a relief!
Moving along and getting the landing gear ready, I've come across something very odd that I can not figure out. Likely not the last time something catches me unexpectedly.

Something appears to be around the wheel pant making the xform area larger than it should be. I think. What I'm seeing just doesn't make any sense. I've rotated around it looking for anything in the field, and I can't find a thing. I'm stumped!! A rogue vertex was my first thought.

Again, I'm in need of wisdom.:isadizzy:

xform.jpg

xform1.jpg


AHH HA!!!! There was a rogue vertex causing havoc!!
xform2.jpg
 
Glad you (re)discovered the Local Coordinate System for aligning pivots to your animated parts. :) You probably read about it in some of my many explanations as I always emphasize that.

Yes, that extraneous vertex. Good find; always the reason when you have this issue usually caused when you are recreating polys.

Have fun :)
 
Hi Milton. Thanks for popping in.

Remembering things are not easily set into my noggin at times I'm finding. It's a good thing for my endeavor that people in the know come to my aide.
I've got so much information tucked away that I get lost in it all. Experience is the key. Of which I am lacking as displayed above. I'm not sure I was cut out to be doing this all on my own. As frustrated as I get from it all.

One phase at a time I guess. :isadizzy:
 
OleBoy said:
Hi Milton. Thanks for popping in.

Remembering things are not easily set into my noggin at times I'm finding. It's a good thing for my endeavor that people in the know come to my aide.
I've got so much information tucked away that I get lost in it all. Experience is the key. Of which I am lacking as displayed above. I'm not sure I was cut out to be doing this all on my own. As frustrated as I get from it all.

One phase at a time I guess. :isadizzy:
Click to expand...

LOL Oh you will do fine; just takes a little time to warp your head around it.

I have released all my gmax source so there are reference materials available. The basics of animation I believe are the same but FSX requires use of the animation tool. At any rate, if you need help with the basics, I would be happy to get online with you to talk you through it.
 
Well, my head has been warped from the start of the project. So it's OK. LOL!

So far I have the door, and the tail surfaces animated. The door speed is fine. The tail surfaces however are too fast. Animation length on them are 0-100. I think that's a little short for duration is why the speed seems too fast. It's been trial and error up to this point on what gets animated up/down or left/right first.

Thanks everyone for steering me the right direction.
 
Trim Tab?

New wings and ailerons again.

I'm working on getting the animations sorted. Currently animating the "Trim-tab" has me guessing so I can't seem to figure out the right way which is due to moving the animation slider and the elevator itself animating at the same time.
Could someone help me out with this? Where/how to begin/end would be a big help right now.


m506.jpg

6v55.jpg

3bmz.jpg

js5i.jpg
 
Trim-Tab Handle / Interior

I've also been trying to configure the animations of the interior trim-tab handle/group. It's a little confusing. Currently the setting is 0-100, and I'm thinking the start point should be 50 (neutral). As I build the animation I've rotated the handle 15 deg, then the pointer 5 deg. Once I do that I move the time frame slider 10 frames then repeat. And so on. The animation works well for that direction. The part I'm having trouble with is animating the other direction. If I make any sense. To also add to my confusion there are 5 animations listed in the animation tool. :isadizzy:

rsso.jpg
 
For FS9 and gmax, the trimtab and handle would be animated separately, each having a unique name and animation.

The trimtab should be animated using 0-100 frames.
Zero position would be at frame 50.
Frame 0 = full up (left); frame 100 = full down (right)

To animate, Move the trimtab full left with frame scalar at 0.
Turn on Animate. Then Move slider to 50.
At frame 50, move the tab to center position, move slider to frame 100 then tab to full right (down).
Turn off Animation.
 
You have no idea how much you've helped Milton. I seem to be getting lost in the animations phase. It's very frustrating at times. :kilroy:
Thank you very much. I will try again!
 
FSX is a little fussy with animations: make extra keyframes at 25 and 75 or the animation may not show in the sim.
 
Two additional frame positions are in place. Thanks for the tip! :salute:

As I go through things that need animations, and how things are animated differently, I'm currently experimenting with the fuel gauge that resides in the fuel cap. The indicator method to let the pilot know how much (close approximation) fuel is in the fuel tank, is noticeable by the metal rod that slides up/down in the cap. On the inside at the bottom of the rod there is a cork attached which keeps the height of the rod some what honest to base a reading of how much fuel is actually there. The rod (I assume) would be notched.

No idea if my method will work. It's more trial,error and what makes sense to me. The different colored rods were merely used as reference for the animation scale. Any input would be well taken.
Note my start/end points are reversed.
2v16.jpg
 
You have the right idea. In this case the "needle" is the rod, and the same animation is used.
Your work looks good. :applause:
 
I'm taking a guess that what you quoted is the key factor. If so I'll make the needed adjustments on your confirmation. Until then I will stand fast.
Thanks Rob!

Like previously, animating is coming along. Good actually. Some things are questionable what they get linked to in the Animation Manager. The Mag switch and the Altimeter deviation knob have me guessing. There's a lot listed in there!

So far everything on the panel is animated short of the control wheels. I'll keep plugging away to what makes sense and hope it works. :icon_lol:
I wish I knew how to make a short video of everything working.
 
I seem to be experiencing rudder flutter (in sim) for some reason. I recall reading about animations that have symptoms like that, I just don't remember where.
The animation range is set 0, 25, 50, 75, 100. Just a guess, maybe add more key frames? I'll start searching Google.
 
Ah: make sure your animation controllers are set to Linear or all sorts of oddities can happen, including flutter. The default in GMax is Bezier for position and TCB for rotation unless the modeler sets the default to Linear. It's something we tend to set and then forget - until we next reinstall GMax. :banghead:


I've added this to the thread on getting started with GMax.
 
I was just going to say (until you gave a nice screenshot) that I was a little (LOT) lost on where to set-up the linear settings. I was looking under the Customize/Preferences/Animation, and all over the place. Under the Motion Tab too. I keep forgetting that I have the Gmax Bible and that's sitting to the left of me! :sleep:

Your snapshots, just what I needed.

Thanks Tom! Help is always appreciated.
 
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