stutts

http://store.steampo...com/app/221200/

Pretty interesting...software that pulls mocap data using Kinect cameras, motion controllers, etc.

Hi all.

I'm working on an animating a machine using a client-provided CAD model.

Basically, it's a series of shelves connected to each other by a series of struts or bars. See below video for what I mean.

https://dl.dropbox.c...863/machine.mov

The whole thing needs to move along a spline, and I'd love it if I could set it up to be all controlled by one or two controls so that I don't have to hand animate tons of stuff. I've got the shelves moving easily enough along the spline via a cloner. Each shelf is connected to two of the struts, which are in turn connected to the strut next to them. The struts (they make the v-shapes in the video) have wheels on them, which connect to a chain which drives the whole mechanism. So I've got the struts moving along a spline, and I can cheat a bunch of the shots with what's seen in the video there, but I'm racking my brain and googling like crazy trying to figure out a way to get the struts to (1) have the wheels move along the spline where they attach to the drive chain - they have to stay locked along it, as they are physcially bolted to the track defined by the spline, while also (2) connecting to each other and flexing closer together and farter apart as they move around the spline (mostly just at the top and bottom).

Any thoughts on how to pull this off?

 

Thanks!

Looks pretty interesting.

Crazy. It's like real-life reference footage for some of the more abstract/organic looking animations that you see sometimes.