'burning' a parents keys into its childs?

[timberoz]

Hello. Does anyone know of a maxscript/etc that would let me take a parent bone's rotation data and burn/copy it into that of the linked child's rotation tracks? Linked objects, although they behave like their parents, don't generate any motion tracks of their own. I would like the ability to link a child object to a bone, and then take that bones motion data and store it into the child's own tracks thus allowing the child object to retain the parent's movement when I break the link.

On an extremely similar note, does anyone know if it is somehow possible to copy one object's motion tracks into that of another object? For example, could I possibly convert object A and B's rotational coordinates into EULER and then copy ALL of object A's Euler X rotation data into that of object B's Euler X rotation data tracks?

hope no one is TOO confused!
BMN

[fuse]

you can copy almost any objects tracks in the track view and paste them on to any other objects corresponding track. you can choose to just copy it or instance it too.
very handy.
when you click on the track you want to copy in trackview a button on the toolbar becomes available which looks like two sheets of paper (second button from left).
then select the track you want to paste to and press the clipboard button (third from left).
now if you want to do what you described in your fist paragraph you can use this technique but you will have to make sure the child object has the same pivot location as the parents bones pivot point

hope that makes sence

| f |

[hfb]

You can aslo use "snapshot keys" by Habware to pass a parents keys to it's children. I used it recently to transfer a bipeds animation to a rigid-jointed marionette. Look for it on max3d.

[timberoz]

thanks!!

[reviver]

hi,
I currently use Max 7 but I have Max 5 bible. According to the book, link all the ofjects first. Then on the Hierarchy panel, click on IK and roll down to a rollout that says sliding joints and rotating joints. There is a copy button for each of them. Copy and them select the next object and paste both. Or either one you need to copy.

hope that helps...

Rhetoric Reviver

[reviver]

first you need to convert the object you are animating into a character. Select all parts including bones and Create Character in the character menu. After you create a character you can save the animated character. It will be saved as a .anm or a .xml file. Open a new file with another character and select File>Merge Animation. It will allow you to set the animation sequence and the destination object. There are buttons "Source File" and "Source Object." the source file lets u select a file to import the animation. The source object lets you import the characterists of that object. All the keys are going to be used in the new object.

You have to play with it a little bit to get it fine tune.

If you have problems by coping the animation in to a different object, i.e. the bone structure is different etc, use the Object Mapping rollout. It lists the source object and the current objects side by side. The animated bones are shown in red. You can save the mappings and load in to other objects. The file extension is .mam.

Hope it helps

Rhetoric Reviver