Using Armatures for animations

[SchneiH2]

Hi again
 

So far I have been animating objects (knobs, levers etc.) directly, i.e. I did not use armatures as described in the great YouTube-tutorial for Blender/PlaneMaker (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zpe17E9zSuA). As this worked quite well so far frankly speaking I did not see the necessity/sense of using armatures.

However, with my current project I run into a problem which might be related to that. For the design of the AP panel of the plane I need to slightly incline the knobs (HDG, SPEED setting etc.) against the horitontal axis. After having rotated them into the final position I use Ctrl + A to apply Object Transformation. Once this was done, I applied a Custom Transformation Orientation to the center of the bottom face of the knob and animated (rotated around central axis) the knob with two keyframes. To my absolut confusion this worked still well with the first knob, however, when doing the same procedure with the next knob by no means I could get this working properly, i.e. the rotation in XPlane is chaotic as if no Object Transformation had been applied.

Finally, I started to follow exactly the steps as described in the mentioned YouTube tutorial.

So firstly I parented to knob to the armature in Pose Mode. Then I used the armature to rotate the knob into the desired (inclined) position. Once this was done I used the armature for the animation, i.e. created two keyframes for the rotation around the central axis. So far so good. But at his point I obviously do not understand correctly how to proceed further. If I apply the DataRef and its corresponding values to the armature keyframes nothing happens in XPlane, i.e. no animation. Having checked the mentioned tutorial again I noticed that the DatRefs are being applied to the Object (not to the parent armature). Since I use Blender 2.73 I cannot understand the procedure as shown in the tutorial (there an old Blender version 2.49? is being used). There the DataRef values are being assigned to the object, however, to my understanding it does not have keyframes. Trying this in Blender 2.73 creates an error message that keyframes are needed to assign a DataRef-value.

Would be great if somebody could help to sort out his mess.

 

Although, this should perhaps not have any influence I have to add that for reasons of convenience I model these knobs on a different layer and move them then to the panel layer to animate them.

 

Thank you up-front for possible help.

Best regards

[ksgy]

Which exporter are you using? One by Marginal, or the one by der-On?

[ilias.tselios]

Exporting animation in blender with 2.5x/2.6x/2.7x is notorious problematic. Here is a workflow that seems is working correct:

 

1. Note that inclination angle (should be relative to X axis, logical)...for example 15 deg.
2. Select the object you want to animate, and set cursor to selected.
3. Add an empty and parent the object to the empty.
4. No need for armatures/bones. Animate the object as is without the inclination.
5. When finished. Rotate the empty to the inclination value and export.

[SchneiH2]

Hi airfighter

Thank you very much for this simple but perfectly working hint! You made my day as I have been struggeling with this problem already for a while. Just to be sure - is there any good reason when modelling planes/cockpits for XPlane to use armatures/bones?

Thanks again and best regards

SHJ

[ilias.tselios]

Actually you don't need to use, at all, any armatures/bones, etc. That was a must, back in blender 2.49- days! Logically, you can do everything if you use just empties.

Sent from my GT-P3110 using Tapatalk

[SchneiH2]

Hi airfighter

Many thanks for the additonal response on armatures/bones.

Best regards

SHJ