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524 Chapter 12: Animation
of an object in your scene, the object c an follow
asplineusingthePathconstraint,reacttoany
animated parameter using a Reaction controller,
or move to the beat of music using the A udio
controller. You can combine con trollers with a
List Controller. You can drive a single ver tex or
control point on a complex object by a variety of
controllers.
You can also assign cont rollers using the rig ht-click
menu in the Track View Controller window. Or
you can assign controllers in the Motion panel,
in Schematic View, and by using the Animation
menu.
Constrai nts and Controllers
Technically, there is no difference between a
controller and a constraint. A constraint is simply
a controller t hat requires the use of a second object.
For example, a Path constraint is a controller that
requires a spline object for a path.
Special-Ca se Controllers
Special-case controllers are not assigned manually
w ith the Assign Controller command. They are
applied automatically during certain procedures.
Barycentric Morph Controller is applied by
selecting an object and clicking Command panel
>Geometry>CompoundObjects>Morph.
A Master Point Controller is assigned when
animating vertices, control points, or vectors in
thesub-objectmodeofanEditableMesh,Editable
Spline, Editable Patch, NURBS surface, or FFD
modifier.
SlaveControllerscanbeassignedmanually,butis
also automatically applied to selected tracks when
a Block controller is created in Track View Global
Tracks. A Slave controller transfers key data to a
Block controller. Slave controllers are described in
the Block controller topic.
Avail a ble A nima tion Cont rol ler s a nd
Constraints
Attachment Constraint (page 2–376) :APosition
controller that attaches an object’s position to a
face on another object. The t arget object doesn’t
have to be a mesh, but must be able to convert
itself to a mesh.
Audio Controller (page 2–303) :Animatesa
parameter or object using a sound file.
Bezier Controller (page 2–305) :Smoothes
function curves between transform keys, giving
the effect of continuous, natural movement. The
Bezier controller is the default controller for
position and scale.
Barycentric Morph Controller (page 2–304) :
Ap plied during the creation of a morph object.
Each morph key represents a series of weights for
all morph targets.
Block Controller (page 2–307) :Grouptracks
from multiple objects into Blocks. Blocks can be
copied, pasted, scaled and saved. Use Blocks to
quickly re-create a complex motion anywhere in
an animation.
Color RG B Controller (page 2–311) (Point 3 XYZ
Controller): Creates separate tracks for red, green,
and blue.
Euler XYZ Rotation Controller (page 2–312) :
Combines separate, sing le-value float controllers
to specify an angle of rotation about each of the X,
Y, and Z axes. You can specify the order the axes
are rotated.
Expression Cont roller (page 2–315) :Mathematical
expressions control object parameters such as
length, width, and height, or transform and
modifier values, such as position coordinates.
IK Controller (page 2–421) : Assigned to a
hierarchy through the use of an IK Solver. Can
be automatically assigned to bones a t the time of
creation by using Assign to Children.