8

360 Chapter 12: Animation
Inter face
When y ou assign a Spring controller to an object,
itsrolloutsautomaticallyappearintheMotion
panel. In addition, the rollouts open in a floating
dialog. If you close the dialog, you can reopen it by
right-clicking the track in the Motion panel Assign
Controller rollout or in the Track View hierarchy
and choosing Properties, or clicking the Properties
button on the Track View toolbar.
Spring Dynamics rollout
Point group
Mass—The mass of the object to which the Spring
controller is applied. Increasing the mass causes
the"bouncing"springmotiontobecomemore
exaggerated.
Drag—Ac ts as air friction on the spring motion. A
lowDragsettingresultsinagreater"bouncing"
effect, whi le a high Drag results in subdued
bouncing. Defau lt=1. Range=0 to 10.
Springs group
Add springs to an object using t he Spring
controller when you want the object to b e affected
by the motion of other objects in your scene. T his
effect ively creates virtual springs between objects.
Add—Click this button, and then select one
or more objects whose motion relative to the
spring-controlled object will act as springs on that
object. To finish adding springs, click Add again,
right-click in a v iewpor t, or press ESC.
Remove—Removes highlighted spring objects
from the list.
Note: You cannot remove the Self Influence list
entr y, which is the spring-controlled object’s
influence on itself.
(Li st)—Listsallspringobjectsbyname,anddisplays
each object’s Tension and Dampening settings
separated by a slash (/). The spring-controlled
object’s influence on itself appears as Self
Influence, and cannot b e deleted. However, you
can effectively remove the object’s influence on
itself by sett ing Tension and Dampening to 0,
resulting in no motion.
To set Tension and Dampening for one or more
objects in the list, hig hlight them in the list and
then adjust the settings.
Tens ion—The "stiffness" of the vir tua l spring
between the controlled object and the high lighted
spring object(s).
Dampeni ng—Actsasamultiplierofaninternal
factor that determines how quickly the object
comes to rest.
With the Self Influence spring, changing
DampeninghasthesameeffectaschangingDrag.
With other springs, Dampening affects only the
move ment caused by that spring.
Internally, the dampening value is proportional
to the tension, so as you increase the tension and