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468 Chapter 7: Creating Copies and Arrays
2.
In the Animate group, tur n off L ocal Center
During Animate.
This changes t he default and makes all the
transform center options avai lable when
animating. You can now animate around either
the selection or transform coordinate center,
as well as local pivot.
Note: Changing the default sett ing animates the
rotation you see in viewports as a rotation plus
translation, which mig ht not be the effect you
wanted.
Cloning Objects Over T ime with
Snapshot
The Snapshot tool (page 1–438) lets you clone an
object along its animation path. You can make
asinglecloneatanyframe,ormultipleclones
spaced over a selected number of frames.
Using car models animated a long paths, Snapshot creates
an image of a collision.
Snapshot can also clone a particle system’s
particles.
Snapshot spaces the clones equally in time.
Adjustments in Track View let you space the clones
equally along the path instead.
Like other clone techniques, Snapshot creates
copies, instances, or references. You can also
choose a mesh option.
To clone an object with Snapshot, the object must
already be animated. You can use Snapshot from
anyframeonthepath.TheAutoKeybuttonhas
no effect on Snapshot, since Snapshot creates
static clones, not animation. This is the general
procedure:
TocloneanobjectwithSnapshot:
1.
Select an object with an animation p ath, or
aparticlesystem. Theanimationcanresult
from applying transforms, controllers, or any
combination of effects.
2. On the Array flyout (page 1–432) click
Snapshot, or choose Tools menu > Snapshot to
display the Snapshot dialog.
Note: The Ar r ay flyout is on the Extras toolbar,
which is off by default. You can toggle display of
this toolbar by rig ht-clicking an empty spot on
the main toolbar and choosing Axis C onstraints
from the
Customize Display right-click menu
(page 3–831)
.
3. Set p arameters in the dialog, and click OK.
For more procedures and details on the Snapshot
parameters, see
Snapshot Dialog (page 1–438) .
Arraying Objects
Arra y is a dedicated tool for cloning and precisely
transforming and positioning groups of objects in
one or more spatial dimensions. For each of the
three transforms (move, rotate, and scale), you
can specify pa rameters for individual objects in
the array, or for the array as a whole. Many results