#Choo Choo Help
4 messages in this thread
I'm trying to move text around in a path like a "train". Each letter is a
seperate object. What is an easier way to create a single path and put each
successive letter a set number of frames or a set distance behind the next and
still have it "snake" around the path? I have the path I want designed with
TEMPO, and have been just copying it and stretching the first part and changing
the speeds of each letter to end up at the right place at the right time.
There must be a better way.
Peter,
>> I'm trying to move text around in a path like a "train". <<
this is such a common question I'm surprised we don't have a "canned" answer
for it in the libraries now. There's been quite a few chapters written on this
– one that comes to mind is in "3d Studio, special effects" by various authors,
publisher NRP (New Riders Publishing).
To get you started, however, here is a technique in a nutshell. Apply the
animation to the first object (path/get lofter), then copy the animation to all
the other objects (objects/tracks/copy). Now you'll need to offset the time of
each object one or more frames from the object in front of it. You do this by
sliding frames in the track info dialog.
There may even be scripts/ipas plug-ins that automate this by now – check out
trails.zip in the scripts library.
Thanks
Peter
Peter,
There is a tutorial for this in the book 3D Studio Special Effects.
Mark