Any way to measure distance in animations?

AnotherUserName

Hi everyone,

Let me clarify.

Im using Daz 4.6 and doing some testing with aniblocks and animate lite. Specifically, im using aniblocks start-(N) and stop-(N).

Is there a method for determining the exact distance (feet, meters, pixels, whatever), from animation start to completion, that the character (V4) travels?

I need to be as exact as possible in determining the distance for the purpose of coding an animation.

Thanks.

Richard Haseltine

Place a new null at the animation start point, parent another to it. Rotate the Parent so one axis points to the end point and move the child along that axis to the end point. Read off the translation value. Or skip the rotation and just use Pythagoras' theorem.

AnotherUserName

Hi Richard,

How do I snap an item to another item so that they are precisely joined?

Jaderail

Load a Null. It will load at X 0, Y 0, Z 0. Name it start as that is also the LOAD for V4 by default. Load a second Null , by load I mean create. Name it distance, in the Parameters Z translate that null in Centimeters the length you need. There are your Start and your End points. And The Distance Null will be in front of V4 ready to move too.

Tip: The Number you need is also the Z translate in the Parameters field.

Richard Haseltine

recepticle0 said:

Hi Richard,

How do I snap an item to another item so that they are precisely joined?

Use the Align pane.

AnotherUserName

Hi guys,

Thanks for the info. More questions...

1. Are the translation numbers (X,Y,Z) in centimeters by default?

2. If not, how do I change them to centimeters?

3. I have tried the Align tab but for seem reason it seems to be more complex than I figured it would be. Is there a link that I can look at that would explain the align tab? I have found nothing useful on it.

Richard Haseltine

1 & 2 Yes, DS uses cms as its unit pretty much every where.

3 You need to remember that the first item selected, is the anchor item for alignment and that the options are based on the bounding box (the partial cube outline that surround a selected item) and origins (the place where the translate/rotate etc. widgets appear). Also remember that bones can't be aligned as such - they drag their whole figure with them. For the purposes of measuring, you'd want to select first the thing you wanted to measure the location of, then the null, then in the Align pane set each axis to Align:Centers, and finally click the Align button.

AnotherUserName

Thank you Richard and Jaderail.

This gives me a good starting point to work from.

Resolved, fixed, no repro, etc.