Moving objects

jodycour

How do you get an object to stop moving when it is parented to your figure when you are trying to create an animation? For instance I parented a spray of blood on a figures forehead when I tried to move the figure the spray of blood moved differently and did not stay attached to the same spot on the forehead! This happens with rifles also I've noticed! Can anyone help? This mainly happens when I am using puppeteer are the time line.

 

Richard Haseltine

What was the item parented to? Was it a figure (with a hierarchy of bones) or a prop (just a single node)?

SpottedKitty

jodycour said:

For instance I parented a spray of blood on a figures forehead when I tried to move the figure the spray of blood moved differently and did not stay attached to the same spot on the forehead!

Parenting doesn't attach objects to "the same spot", what happens is the parented object has relative position coordinates counting from the "zero point" of the object or body part it's parented to. It's these coordinates that are fixed when you parent. If the spot on the original object distorts and moves away from its starting shape, the parented object can't follow.

Also, as Richard said, make sure you are parenting to the Head body part — parenting to any other body part, or to the figure root itself, will also result in moving in weird directions.

One thing you can do, although it could get a bit fiddly, is to animate the parented object at the same time as you animate the figure. Note that this is not easy to get right first time, expect to have to dry-run the animation several times without rendering, until it looks right.

jodycour

SpottedKitty said:

jodycour said:

For instance I parented a spray of blood on a figures forehead when I tried to move the figure the spray of blood moved differently and did not stay attached to the same spot on the forehead!

Parenting doesn't attach objects to "the same spot", what happens is the parented object has relative position coordinates counting from the "zero point" of the object or body part it's parented to. It's these coordinates that are fixed when you parent. If the spot on the original object distorts and moves away from its starting shape, the parented object can't follow.

Also, as Richard said, make sure you are parenting to the Head body part — parenting to any other body part, or to the figure root itself, will also result in moving in weird directions.

One thing you can do, although it could get a bit fiddly, is to animate the parented object at the same time as you animate the figure. Note that this is not easy to get right first time, expect to have to dry-run the animation several times without rendering, until it looks right.

Thanks! I was afraid that, that was the problem! Looks like I'm going to have to move it on each frame!