Animate a character who push an object with wheels (wagon): any hints?

enniobolondi

Hi to everyone!

I'm recently started my "career" as "3D animator" and I have the first problem: I have a "simple" scene to animate: a character with a wagon. The first is walking forward and I was trying to "attach" the handles of the wagon to his hands. Is there a way to let it "realistically" follows my character? I can see there is some physics implementation here. I spent almost a day but unfortunately I didn't make it. Any hints/suggestions/scripts?

Just because an image is better than 1000 words, I also attached a screeshot.

Thanks and have a nice day.

Ennio

Toonces

mCasual has some scripts for this type of thing: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/30340/tutorial-using-the-mcjautolimb-and-mcjholdon-scripts-to-animate-a-swing-set-scene

enniobolondi

Hi, that's a good idea. There is a new version of the script which is working with Genesis3, but I don't have the desidered effect.. I mean, the hands don't stay sticky on the handles. Seems that I didn't run the script at all, but I can see is working because it created some _targets around my scene and the log file tells me that "the script was run successfully".

I don't know what to do.. any other idea?

Thanks,

Ennio

Fishtales

Did you parent the hands to the handles or the handles to the hands. I'm not sure if that would make a difference but might be worth a try.

Toonces

Not sure if the updated script creates the targets for you. Even if it does, would need to make sure they're positioned where you want them to be on the cart. The old tutorial goes into more detail about target creation, autolimb and mjcHoldon (which makes fingers more stable), and I think some of it may be relevant for what you're trying to do: https://sites.google.com/site/mcasualsdazscripts3/swing-animation-tutorial

I can imagine it's finicky and would take a lot of practice to get right.

enniobolondi

Hi,

@fishtales maybe this is the point. My wagon is a whole 3D piece so I can't parent the handles in the hands of my character. What I can try is split in three pieces before continue.

@toonces what I can try to do is start again from scratch with simpler conditions. The tutorial was quite clear to me, but maybe I did something wrong. 

I will tell you, thanks,

Ennio

Fishtales

You can use the Geometry Tool to select the handles and create a new Geometry Assignment. I'm not sure what you would assign it as but  one of them should work......I think :)

enniobolondi

hi to everyone again,

first of all: thanks for your replies: I'm learning a lot of staff.

@Fishtales I have a question. I'm trying to understand what is the Geometry Tool. Can you tell me where is it?

@Toonces maybe I understand why the plugin mcjAutoLimb2015 is not working for me. I know, when you press OK, it creates keyframes on the timeline, but maybe it generates them in the wrong place.

I have "animate2" active and I read somewhere it is able to "overwrite" the daz timeline. Another point is: last day I hadn't the "keyMate" and "graphMate" plugins. Maybe what I can try to do is: active them and try again.

My last resort is try to create my own script :-)

I will tell you guys, cheers!

Ennio

 

Fishtales

It is under the Tools menu/Geometry Tool.

enniobolondi

Found it, thanks!

Fishtales

You're welcome.