Local Vs Global Movement

[charles-fernandez]

Hi everybody, I'm currently trying to drive the movement of an object using dynamics. I would like to get the orientation of the Impulse X,Y and Z to be object local instead of global.

In other words if I have impulse Y acting like the thrust of a rocket, so that if I spin my rocket to the right or left, I would like the Y Impluse to continue pushing the object in whatever direction it's pointed.

However, I can't seem to get that to happen. As it stands, the Impulse Y just shoves the thing straight up... no matter which way the object is pointed the direction is always up.

I will be driving this Impulse with a joystick that I am using for motion capture input. I tried linking the inputs to the Translate X,Y and Z axis. But it did the exact same thing, just though the objects orientaion out the window and shoved it straught up.

I did try adjusting the settings in the Modify>...Translate Tools option box, but it had no effect. Any suggestions?

Completely over my head,
Charlie

[gmask]

well of the top of my head I guess you'd need to translate the local values to the world values.. IE if you want it to go at a 45 degree angle you'd give it a vector impulse of 1 1 0 instead of 0 1 0. Does that makes sense?

[joojaa]

To do that use the vector product node, in vector matrix product mode. Pleas enot ethis si a chiken egg thing if the direction in turn is affected by the sim so it will have a 1 sample step directional shift.

[charles-fernandez]

Hey guys, I appreciate the input. Unfortunately, I'm currently so out of my depth that even your answers are over my head. I've found the Vector Product Utility in the hypershade, but I have no idea what to input where, or how. If you could dumb it down for me, (like Maya for Dummies level). That would be great.