Maya Crane Project - Lesson 4 - set Key Frames and Parent Constraint weights

Fourth video in a 5 part series that demonstrates how to animate setting keyframes in our crane project. I will also show how to parent an object to the crance part way through the animation and then release the object by using parent constraint weights.

Based on lesson 5, chapter 6 of Maya 7 by Alias.

Previous lessons:
Lesson #1: Make the crane: http://www.youtube.com/my_videos_edit?ns=1&video_id=foJBhz3dPFI&next=...

Lesson #2: Adding Bones and IK Handle
http://www.youtube.com/my_videos_edit?ns=1&video_id=BoRUoZDX_sM&next=...

Lesson #3: IK Handle with Constraints and Joint Limits
http://www.youtube.com/my_videos_edit?ns=1&video_id=26vAT_5tEB4&next=...

Next video in this series: Lesson #5 - use constraints to pick up multiple objects.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Crane Project
• Lesson
• Rusty Stasiuk
• Russell Stasiuk
• Software Tutorial
• Autodesk Maya
• maya
• beginners
• tutorial
• how-to
• Animation
• IK Handle
• control object
• point constraint
• orient constraint
• joint rotation
• Animated
• Tips
• Cartoon
• key frame
• parent constraint weights

[Rustystasiuk]

Hi jadeinshades,

If I get a minute latter today I'll try playing around with my crane demo and see if I can cause the same havoc. I've got alot on my plate at the moment but I'll see what I can do.

Rusty

[Rustystasiuk]

Well SoundlessFantasy.. I thought your question deserved a video tutorial. Check out Lesson 5.

Cheers.

[3eneboy]

Thank you!

[dayabottt]

Good lessons!!!!

[Ubertubermeister]

@Ubertubermeister Sorry to bother - I found the solution: "Combine" to single mesh. silly me

[jadeinshades]

@Rustystasiuk Thank you sir, I appreciate your speedy response. And obvious willingness to help, you are AWESOME!!!! I did find out what I was doing wrong. I set the blend parent on the object to zero on frame 1 and the frame before it gets picked up, and the animation is back to normal. And I'm able to pick it up. I don't have complete understanding of how it all works, and if you do a video I'll definitely check it out. Thank you again for your time and help!!! :)

[jadeinshades]

@jadeinshades To continue, the translation is completely changed. It no longer jumps around, it sits in the final place before it's picked up the whole time. But it still squashes and stretches on the keys it's supposed to. I'm very new to maya, and the assignment doesn't call for us to animate the object, I was just trying to go the extra yard. Do you know why this may be happening? I've never uploaded a video to youtube, but I'll try and upload to help explain, if your willing to help. 

[jadeinshades]

Thank you for the video, it seems pretty straight forward and concise. I'm having a little trouble with an animation I'm doing for class. I have a crane going to pick up the object, and have animated the object, kinda running away from the crane. I'm at the point where I need to constrain, and have set 1 key. Before the object is to be picked up, and I set the constraint at 0. However, when I playback, the objects animation is changed. It squash&stretch on the right keys, but the transl is off.

[SoundlessFantasy]

thanks man i was just learning this but im having trouble doing it for mutipule objects. like picking up a box then putting it down somewhere then picking up another box and putting it down somewhere