targeting??? eyes following object???

[Bonedaddio]

I'm not a noob, but I might as well be... how the &#^$*&^ would I make a pair of eyeballs follow an object, say a bouncing ball?? I've tried a couple of things based on the manuals, (I think "follower" may have been involved) which didn't seem to work at all correctly, and I've gotten nowhere in a great hurry. Some help would be appreciated.

<begin.RANT/>
IMHO, the manual for LW7 contains a lot of interesting information, most of it of little actual help when in the grips of a specific problem, but it's great for pressing flowers, throwing at someone, and holding doors open. I've used Lightwave since version 4, and I should have managed to know how to do the "eyes" thing. Then again, everything has changed function, menu location, and sub dialogue location several times since then.

(Hint: for a good Joke, release a version of a program complete with manuals (LW6) which is so screwed up that you have to release a new version almost immediately (6.5) in which you change the navigation and function location so that the manuals don't match up at all anymore!! Heh heh... almost makes being a software developer worthwhile!!!)
</end.RANT>

[faulknermano]

you cannot use targeting unless the item is either a camera, bone, or a light. if the eye is controlled by a bone you can go over to the Motion Options of the controlling bone and then specify the target item on the dropdown menu. i've had problems, however, with targeting, so...

you can also use IK. if it is IK, just add another effector bone to the eye controller and goal it to the ball and you're set. or if the eye is not being deformed (the actual object is turning) then you can parent a null to that eye and let that serve as an effector that will goal your ball.

[faulknermano]

Originally posted by Bonedaddio
<begin.RANT/>
IMHO, the manual for LW7 contains a lot of interesting information, most of it of little actual help when in the grips of a specific problem, but it's great for pressing flowers, throwing at someone, and holding doors open.

one particular chapter that i find woefully inadequate is the particleFX chapter. i was pretty disappointed to read:

"The Wind mode setting determines the type of wind and how it changes over time. You can get a feel for what the setting does by looking at the wind indicators."

and that's it. about 10 wind effectors are left unexplained all of a sudden. i mean. true, you can get a 'feel' for the wind type by looking at the indicators and observing the results. but i dont need a manual to tell me THAT. i know that already.

dont mean to sound so harsh, but because things like particlefx has alot of options and enigmatic parameters, you need the manual to explain them.

[Bonedaddio]

Thanks for the input, Faulknermano; I'll have another go at it.

(TO ALL) In my rant above, I sound like I hate LW. That's not really true or I wouldn't have been fooling around with it since version 4!! I actually love the program and what I can eventually get it to do... It's just that I've burned SO many hours on live projects that could have been avoided with a little documentation, or help files or something!!!

At least so far, Newtek isn't Adobe. I love the Adobe's tech support: "We've made some software that has some problems, now we're going to charge you to help us fix them." grrrrrrr