2009

■ The Hierarchy panel on page 7661 contains commands to control how links
behave.
■ The
Motion panel on page 3426 contains commands to control how links
behave when using an History Dependent (HD) Solver
Common Uses for Hierarchies
■ Link a large collection of objects to a single parent so they can be easily
animated and transformed by moving, rotating, or scaling the parent.
■ Link the target of a camera or light to another object so it tracks the object
through the scene.
■ Link objects to dummy objects to create complex motions by combining
multiple simple motions.
■ Link objects to simulate jointed structures to animate characters or
mechanical assemblies.
Parts of a Hierarchy
The relationship between objects linked together in a hierarchy is analogous
to a family tree.
Parent Object that controls one or more children. A parent object is often
controlled by another superior parent object. In the following figure, objects
1 and 2 are parent objects.
Child Object controlled by its parent. A child object can also be a parent to
other children. In the following figure, objects 2 and 3 (the support and hub)
are children of object 1. Objects 5 (the seats) are children of object 4, the Ferris
wheel.
Ancestors Parent and all of the parent’s parents of a child object. In the
following figure, objects 1 and 2 are ancestors of object 3.
3332 | Chapter 15 Animation