Ts7.1 Beta 8 Animation

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Finis
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Re: Ts7.1 Beta 8 Animation

Post by Finis »

TS 7.6 model side

The blue gear has no physics properties and is keyframe animated to spin. It is the motor to drive the rest. The green and pink gears are driven by physics simulation. They move because the blue gear is turning.

The green and pink gears have physics properties and each has an Object Fixation Point at the centers of the end faces.

To add Object Fixation Points first give the object basic physics properties (cloth, wood, metal). Then select it and click the Fixation Point 1 icon. The point will appear in the center of the object. Move the fixation point, as you would move any object, to the desired location. In this case to the center of one 'round' face. Create fixation point 2 for the other face. There is an option somewhere for the fixation points to move with the object. I don't know where that is but be sure they do.

For best results with TS physics right click the start simulation icon. Constant time: uncheck, collision detection: vertex + face, integrity checking: all.

Attached is a zip with the TS 7.6 model side scene file for this.

For attaching things (group ?) to gears I can only guess. Things to try:
- In any case do grouping, Booleans, etc. first then apply physics or keyframes.
- Try applying the physics properties to a group rather than its components.
- Use a rigid IK joint to connect the objects. No skeleton is needed for this. You can connect objects directly with IK joints in TS.
- Use the Mesh Collapse plug-in to merge the objects into one mesh.
Attachments
PhysGearsTS76modelside.zip
(204.21 KiB) Downloaded 275 times
PhysGears.gif
PhysGears.gif (195.1 KiB) Viewed 4867 times
Last edited by Finis on 06 Nov 2015, 00:06, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: Ts7.1 Beta 8 Animation

Post by spacekdet »

Simulations were never my thing, but somewhere in Model side I remember being able to set a single or double fixation point in order to nail down the axis of a rotating part.

Might have been a right-click option on something else because now I can't seem to find it at the moment.

Not very helpful, I know, but it's in there somewhere!

(EDIT) See Finis's post above/below.
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Re: Ts7.1 Beta 8 Animation

Post by Emmanuel »

Thanks for the tutorial Finis.
It is good to remember that we have such tools... I realize that in 18 years of trueSpace daily work I NEVER made use of its simulation capabilities :mrgreen: :)
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Re: Ts7.1 Beta 8 Animation

Post by trueBlue »

Good one Finis!
Willing to tackle this one?
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Re: Ts7.1 Beta 8 Animation

Post by Finis »

Thanks everyone.

I hope that info is what lrdsatyr8 needs.

It was nice to visit TS again but I'll devote my efforts to learning Blender. Judging from videos Blender has a great physics system and lots of simulation ability including water, waves, and breaking stuff. trueBlue that clock looks like a job for Blender.

Edit: I tried this with 10 or 11 gears. The fixation points will move with a gear and will move with multiple gears selected but won't rotate with them even if they are grouped. The fixation points are hard to keep in the correct positions. The errors where things move into each other accumulate so that the gear teeth co-occupy space and gears don't rotate correctly. You would have to use many polygons on the objects to improve that and the simulation would be very slow.

lrdsatyr8, I would not recommend TS for physics simulations of your gears unless it is just two or three. If you just want to key frame animated gears for illustration maybe but not as a test of function. Maybe Blender is what you need for that. I don't know Blender yet but its physics seems much better based on videos of things people have done.
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Re: Ts7.1 Beta 8 Animation

Post by BNG »

lrdsatyr8 wrote:
BNG wrote:I have if anyone needs it. Leroy.
I'd like to try it out! Am getting quite frustrated over this.
This plugin is mainly for tank tracks but give it a try a see if it can you going in the right direction. Leroy.
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vcTek.zip
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Re: Ts7.1 Beta 8 Animation

Post by lrdsatyr8 »

Finis wrote:Thanks everyone.

I hope that info is what lrdsatyr8 needs.

It was nice to visit TS again but I'll devote my efforts to learning Blender. Judging from videos Blender has a great physics system and lots of simulation ability including water, waves, and breaking stuff. trueBlue that clock looks like a job for Blender.

Edit: I tried this with 10 or 11 gears. The fixation points will move with a gear and will move with multiple gears selected but won't rotate with them even if they are grouped. The fixation points are hard to keep in the correct positions. The errors where things move into each other accumulate so that the gear teeth co-occupy space and gears don't rotate correctly. You would have to use many polygons on the objects to improve that and the simulation would be very slow.

lrdsatyr8, I would not recommend TS for physics simulations of your gears unless it is just two or three. If you just want to key frame animated gears for illustration maybe but not as a test of function. Maybe Blender is what you need for that. I don't know Blender yet but its physics seems much better based on videos of things people have done.
Thanks Finis... you helped alot. I did find that you have to actually phsychically make the entire housing that the pivots sit in for it to work. For example... if you have a gear, you have to have it on a axle... and the axle must be sitting in a hole at both ends on a fixed object that doesn't move. That helped alot. The physics work, but you're right... they are slow. Took about an hour to get a good gear train to move properly but it worked enough to prove a hypothesis I had about a gearing system for a particular project I'm working on. Thank you again for your help!
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