Lovely expressions

[nzoreo]

HELLO,
Riddle me this. I have a null animating on a path, with a tangency to the path. everything is good....But I want to use expressions. So I write this null1.trans.....cirlce1.rotz, The null stays on the path and only moves when I rotate the circle, but loses its tangency.

Its the old bike chain job I am trying to do. What do you all think

Cheers

Alex

[fredc]

How about trying this approach?
1. Constrain bones of a skeleton to a linear curve using constrain object to cluster.
2. Use deformation by curve to get the linear curve to follow your path.
3. Parent/child your chain links to the skeleton.

This would avoide a constraint conflict with the tagency.

Hope this helps. Sorry if I misunderstood you problem.

Urp

[nzoreo]

That's a wicked idea Urp, I only have one question. How would you then use expressions to move the chain, as as soon as you set the etrny expression it would lose it's deformation. I might be being a bit dim and missing the point...what do you think

[fredc]

The expression you need is "nsftry" as in "object1.nsftry". Just make this expression equal to what ever value you want.

Even though you interactively translate the deformed object along the curve with the Y translation, all deformations have their own set of function curves. Just look under save key and you will see an entire section for deforms. However, don't save a key or you won't be able to apply your expression. Just us FcrvReset if you already did.

If you need more details, just let me know.

Hope this helps,
Urp