2009

The sphere bounces on top of the dummy object as the dummy moves
around the scene. You can easily change the height and speed of the
bounce by changing the sphere animation. You can change the path
through the scene by changing the dummy animation.
To create a camera tripod:
■ Create a dummy object below a target camera and link the camera and
target as children of the dummy object.
The camera and the target follow the dummy object. You can quickly
position the camera by placing the dummy object and compose your view
by adjusting the camera and its target.
Animating Links
You assign a
Link constraint on page 3308 to an object to animate links from
one parent to another. You use a link constraint instead of using the regular
Select and Link and Unlink Selection buttons on the toolbar. (See Animation
Constraints
on page 3287.)
An example of using a link constraint is to pass a ball from one hand to
another. Assume that at frame 0 the ball is in the first hand. The hands are
animated to meet at frame 50 and then spread apart until frame 100.
To animate the links for the ball:
1 On the Motion panel, assign a Link constraint as the ball's Transform
controller. You can also put a Link constraint on the ball from the
Animation menu by choosing Constraints > Link Constraint.
2 Move the time slider to frame 0, then on the Motion panel click Add
Link, and click the hand holding the ball. The ball will now move along
with the hand, as if it were linked to it.
3 Move the time slider to frame 50, where you want the second hand to
pick up the ball, click Add Link, then click the second hand. From this
frame on, it's as if the ball were linked to the second hand.
When you play back the animation, the ball travels with the first hand until
frame 50, where you added the second link, then the ball is passed to the
second hand for the rest of the animation.
Animating with Forward Kinematics | 3365