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[Owl]

This topic is a place for Newbies to get to know each other and some of the more experienced users. Ask your dumb questions here and hopeful many of the kind hearty fellow Anim8or users will chime in.
Declaration, this is a Chat room: No topic is off-topic as long as it is respectful and civil.
Thank You,
Owl

PS: refer back to "Where can I start?"  http://www.anim8or.com/smf/index.php/topic,5010.0.html for some good tutorials.

[Owl]

Is there any documentation or tutorials on: Object/Axis ^O   

Also, I can't find the three coordinate systems choices ever doing anything. They seem like a necessary tool.
I'd like to move and move about the selection points.
Thank You.

[johnar]

Hello Owl,
 Just to let you know, the manual is still the 1st place to look for most of the answers to your questions. (download, print, and put into a clearfile folder. Hardcopy is good)
 As you may be aware, V0.98 is still the latest full version, and a good place for newbies to get accustomed to the general outlay of Anim8ors usage.
 The recent builds are a gradual building up of Anim8or, where steve has opened it up to allow users to voice opinions, suggestions, etc on upgrades as they are added
 New functions in builds above V0.98 are an 'Open Work in Progress', and information concerning new functions will be found in the 'Ongoing Anim8or Development' forum.
  For anyone completely new to Anim8or, V.0.98 would be a good place to start, just to get the general feel of the different modes and capabilities within Anim8or.
 Once you're understanding how anim8or works, then you, or any newbie, will be able to make more sense of later additions.
 Re your question

Is there any documentation or tutorials on: Object/Axis ^O

, you'll find on page 2 of the manual, Basics -> page 2, Common button meanings.
 The 3rd button, under common button meanings, gives you the option to change the axis point of an object.  Click on that button, go to wireframe view, and you'll see the axis of the object(s).
 Click on the move tool and you can move the axis. Or rotate tool to rotate the axis.
 

I can't find the three coordinate systems choices ever doing anything. They seem like a necessary tool.
I'd like to move and move about the selection points.

  Not sure exactly what you're asking here, but for viewing in your workspace, familiarize yourself with the arc rotate tool. (in the manual, basics, page 5, arc rotate tool)

[kreator]

check out these items...

http://www.anim8or.com/smf/index.php/topic,4990.msg37399.html#msg37399

[Owl]

Good advice johnar,
Once you told me that in order to use Object/Axis ^O I had to be in WIREFRAME mode ... it now works. Duh!
I did not get that interpretation from the manual.
This has been a consistent problem for me, without a mode-tree showing what features work in what functions and modes, I regularly hit dead ends where nothing works as it did before (because I was somewhere else in the software's GUI logic when it worked last time)
Thank you!

[johnar]

 You're welcome Owl

nothing works as it did before (because I was somewhere else in the software's GUI logic when it worked last time)

While i'm here, i'd like to just clarify something, to make sure we're on the same page.
 Sorry if this seems obvious, but it may help.
  Note that there are 4 main modes in Anim8or. Object - Figure - Sequence - and Scene, all accessable through top tool bar button - mode
 mode -> object actually has 2 modes of its own. (actually 4, but dealing with 2 here)
 object mode -
, and then
 Object Edit Mode -

   In the manual, chapter 3, under Object Editor Basics, the first mode discussed is the object mode

 Then, Chapter 4, is the Object Editor Point Editor - which is an object Editor mode
  Check out the manual with the understanding that paticular functions are available depending on which object mode you are in.
 Hope that has possibly clarrified, a little, the model creation and model manipulation modes in Anim8or.
  Keep the manual close, sometimes you need to read something a few times over before it becomes clear.
 If, after you've tried the manual, something remains unclear, then ask. We're basically a friendly lot here, and happy to help.
 

[Owl]

Please take a look at this:
another failure-to-cap mode for extrusion
http://www.anim8or.com/smf/index.php/topic,5010.msg37310.html#msg37310

If I extrude a N-Gon 20 times it will fail at least once, some times fail 10 times or more and sometimes fail on the first try.
Thank You,

[johnar]

If I extrude a N-Gon 20 times it will fail at least once, some times fail 10 times or more and sometimes fail on the first try.

Sorry to say, i've just extruded 20 N-gons and not had one fail to cap.
I've read all 7 and a bit pages of your thread.
 A lot of good, helpfull advice. The answer is probably in there, but you may need to read carefully over it some more until you see it.
A lot of the replies and explanations you've had are from users more experienced in what you're talking about than i am. So theres nothing more i can really say on the technical or practical side of what you're asking.

 But i do have an idea regarding the problems you're having with extruding capped N-gons.
 
 If this is still the case for you,  then grab your next successfull polygon extrusion and mirror it.
 Select object -> build -> mirror image
This idea could:
a) Supply you with an endless amount of required objects
b) allow you to move on with your adventure of discovering the wonderfull world of 3D modelling and Animation with Anim8or.

 Have you made the eggplant yet?
http://www.anim8or.com/learn/tutorials/index.html
 It does begin with the extrusion of a pentagon, but once you've got that, if you move slowly and carefully through the tutorial, you'll learn to use some new and very helpfull modelling tools.

[Owl]

Ok, making some progress ... So I animate object1 along a path. It reaches object2 and now I want the object2 to be rigidly attached to the object1 and finish animating object1 with Object2 attached.
Read everything and tried for an hour. Help would be most welcome.
Thank You.

[johnar]

It reaches object2 and now I want the object2 to be rigidly attached to the object1 and finish animating object1 with Object2 attached.

 What do you mean by 'rigidly attach' to object 2.?
 More info about what you're planning would be helpfull.

[thecolclough]

owl - if you mean what i think you mean, then the simplest solution is (believe it or not...) to have 2 copies of object2 in your scene: the first one is the one that sits in the starting location before object1 arrives, and the second should be set as a child of object1 so that it will be carried around wherever object1 goes; use Visibility keyframes on the two copies to instantaneously swap between them, so that it appears as if there is only 1 of the item in the scene and object1 collects it en route.

[Owl]

By 'rigidly attach' to object 2', I mean move as if they were one object, like welded or screwed together.
The idea is that a pallet is brought in to the scene, a shoe box is brought into the scene and placed on the pallet, the pallet then moves away together with the box. The box is sitting and not moving on the pallet.
Hope that helps.

[Owl]

Ok I was kinda doing that. What you offer is an important difference:
I think you are suggesting ... Have object1 and object2 as separate elements and object1 attached to object2 as a separate element we will call object3.
Object 3 is a child to object 1 and is at first not visible. On the frame after object2 is attached to object1, the visibility of the object1, object2 and object3 is logically-inverted. Right?
Thank You.

[Raxx]

Keyframed parenting is a feature request and hasn't been implemented yet. However, if you aren't afraid to try it, an alternate solution is to use ASL to attach one object to another in the Scene editor, and change at specific frames.

ASL is a fairly new and experimental feature, so it's not very much documented yet, especially for the scene editor. It's fairly powerful though. Below is an animation I made in 20 minutes using a few lines of code and basic scene setup. The sphere is the child and changes parents from the cube to the cone.

ASL Snippet

/* Declaring variables */
point3 $parent1Loc, $parent2Loc;
 
/* Grab the parent positions */
$parent1Loc = GetAttributePoint3("eobject02", "position");
$parent2Loc = GetAttributePoint3("eobject03", "position");
 
/* If we're in frames 0 - 24, use parent01 position plus 100 units on the Y axis*/
if (frame >= 0 && frame <= 24)
$position = $parent1Loc + (0,50,0);
else /* Switch to parent02 */
$position = $parent2Loc + (0,50,0);

[ENSONIQ5]

Great solution Raxx.  Scene-mode scripting = POWER!!

Owl, re your earlier post about visibility switching, it is not possible to 'attach' or 'detach' elements using keyframes (other than through a script like Raxx's).  Parent/child relationships are set up initially and are retained throughout an animation.  thecolclough's solution is to bring three elements into your scene: The pallet (element = Pallet), plus two separate copies of your shoebox (elements Shoebox1 and Shoebox2).  Shoebox1 is made a child of Pallet and is located (in all frames) in its final position relative to the pallet, ie sitting on it, and it's visibility is initially set to not visible.  The Pallet element is animated as required, and the invisible Shoebox1 moves with it.

Shoebox2 is a free element with no parent/child relationship.  Initially visible, it is animated to be placed on the pallet, it's final position corresponding exactly with the location of Shoebox1.  At whatever frame both shoebox elements are co-located, the visibility of each is switched, so Shoebox1 becomes visible and Shoebox2 becomes invisible.  Shoebox2 can then remain stationary and invisible, while Shoebox1 moves away with the pallet.  If the keyframing and animation is done correctly the viewer will perceive both shoebox elements as a single object moving through the scene.

Personally, I prefer the script solution for its elegance, however visibility-switching can be a very useful solution to a number of animation challenges.