Parenting object to points or polys.
 

Hi all,

I've been working on the "Stormy Ocean"tutorial,and I think I'm getting the hang of it.
What I'd like to do next is place a boat or buoy in the water and attach it to the wave so it "rides"the wave so to speak.
How should I go about parenting an object to a particular point on the wave surface?

Here is a link to what I've got so far.

http://www.hawkfyr.com/anim/ocean.mpg

Thanks for any help
Thomas Gray
(Hawkfyr)
3DCommune
Site Administrator
Marketing
http://www.3dcommune.com

add a Null in Layout and copy all your displacement maps to a newly created "textured motion" plugin on your null (hint: select the Null and hit "m" to bring up the motion properties panel). Now you can keyframe your null to go across your ocean and it will float on it.
Depending on the initial Y-position of your Null you might need to use the Offset feature of the textured motion plugin...

let me know if this is clear enough :p

Thanks Philip,
I'll give that a whirl and let you know how it works out.

Right now I'm trying to simulate lightning flashes.

I've created a light and leaving it set to zero from frame 0 to 99.
The set a ney frame at 99 with it turned off.
then at frame 100,I've cranked it up to 100% to frame 105 and set a new KF at 105.

The at frame 106,turnd it off again and set a KF at 106.

I've repeated this a few times throughout the animation.

The render is not completed yet so I'm not sure if it worked.

Would you take a different approach?

How would you simulate lightning flashes?

Thanks again

the approach is just fine. Only make yure your tangents in teh graph editor are set to linear, since you will get overshooting when you do this with splines...

Thanks Philip,
something must have gone wrong.(must be the fact that I did nothing in the graph editor at all)

I see no change in the lighting at all.

i'll keep at it.

Thanks again
Tom

The light isn't moving at all,it's staying still but just "flashing" on and off at certain key frames.

But I must be missing something because there is no change in the lighting at all.
So thre would be no reason I can see to do anything with the tangets because there is no actual movement.
Any suggestions?
Is there an obvious step I'm missing?

Thanks again for any help.