Introduction
This week, we enhanced our design by adding a piston to our 3D model and we also learned how to set driven keys to automate the rotation of the fingers.
Creating a Piston
Piston Modelling
First, we modelled our piston by creating some cylinders.
Locators & Constraints
Then, we used locators to enable the piston to follow the rotation of the fingers.
Aim & Parent Constraints
We used aim and parent constraints to attach the movement of the piston to both locators (base & top).
Set Driven Keys
Set Driven Keys
The second part of our class consisted of learning how to set driven keys on the fingers.
This enabled us to automate the rotations of all the finger parts (tip and phalanges).
Finger Curl
For each finger, we set up a curl value from a scale from 1 to 10.
Instead of rotating each part of the finger individually, we now have one main controller that affects the entire movement of the finger.
Further Comments
Practicing how to set up locators and driven keys was essential in that these features will save us much time in the future by automating the movement of our models.