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[sailaleuth]

Hi:
I'm trying to animate a vehicle rollover accident.  I have calculated the 3D position and orientation of the vehicle throughout the rollover (keyframes) and would like to use Anim8or to fill in the gaps and bring it to life.
I could do this with the interface tools but I have different crashes to animate each week and want to automate the process a little.
I have X,Y,Z positions, roll, pitch and yaw orientations, and uneven time steps between key frames.  I don't need to change the vehicle model during the rollover.  I just want an overhead or perspective view of the roll sequence.
Could someone please tell me how to use an ASL script to move the vehicle object to each of the stations and establish a keyframe for each?
I have reviewed the script involving object trajectory based on time and gravity but I need to set my own times for each rollover position.  An example storyborad is attached.
Thanks for any help you can offer!
Don

[Kubajzz]

I think ASL scripts are the worst solution in your case. If you have several key positions, the best you can do is to create corresponding keyframes and Anim8or will find the positions in between.

I recommend using the traditional, simple key-framing method. You may find it uncomfortable to create many keyframes manually, but I think there's not a better way to do this...

The only (theoretical) way to automate the process would be to create a simple external program that reads a text file with the key positions and returns a piece of code you can paste into your an8 file... Anyway, something like this cannot be done using ASL and it's not worth writing such program unless you need to import thousands of keyframes.

As for ASL controller scripts, it's a perfect tool for simple, repetitive animations (for example infinite rotation, blinking light...), but this kind of animation would be pretty hard to implement.

[sailaleuth]

Thanks for such a fast reply!  I see from your comments that I misunderstood the intent of the ASL scripting capability.  What I was hoping for was a script file like:
$position=(0.0, 50.0, 0.0)
$position=(0.0, 100.0, 50.0) ...
with 10 positions or so.  I hoped I could setup a template Anim8or file with a single vehicle object and edit the position entries in the text file or script to produce different rollover scenarios.  I wanted to develop a means to shortcut the process of manually trasferring 6 degree of freedom coordinates and time data from AutoCAD to Anim8or.  If I had it all in a text file or script, it would be much easier to error-check, too.
Before I drop this and go on manually keyframing each crash, can you think of ideas on how to simplify this process?
Thanks again,
Don

P.S.  I need to bring my aerial photos (like the one in the JPG I uploaded) into my Anim8or file and map it to the ground plane so it's proportional to the vehicle scale and motions.  Do you have any suggestions on how to do so or where to find an example?

[benzjie]

P.S.  I need to bring my aerial photos (like the one in the JPG I uploaded) into my Anim8or file and map it to the ground plane so it's proportional to the vehicle scale and motions.  Do you have any suggestions on how to do so or where to find an example?


well...dont use the groundplane....but a square mesh. U can UV scale your heart out then