Cycler Problems Urgent

[fabmedia]

I have an animation that needs to get out by the end of the week and I'm having a lot of trouble with cycler. I've animated my base item, and linked another item to mirror that animation, and then applied cycler to the initial animated object.

The inital animation takes place over the 30 frames and the controlling null over 90 of which the first 30 opens, 30-60 holds the motion, then 60-90 returns the controlling null to it's original position.

Now here's where it gets ugly. After frame 30 the doors "snap" back to thier original position, after 60 only the one side closes after it snaps out to the open position.

And to boot, the doors aren't even in thier original position. Damned if I know what's going on...

Please help. I'm in a desperate need. (Seems all of this stuff is)

here's the link... http://216.232.120.141/movies/spacejet.mov (quicktime)

Arlen

[fabmedia]

Okay, I've managed to get another movie out. Not sure what I did, but it helped in one aspect.

http://216.232.120.141/movies/spacejet2.mov

I know I'm doing something wrong...

A

[fabmedia]

Okay... here's another... http://216.232.120.141/movies/spacejet3.mov

I've managed to fix it for the most part except the jerk at the very end of the cycle which of course I have no hope in hell in figuring out. SO for those who are stumpped this is for you.

To use Cycler with objects that are linked using Channel Follower (children of the parent animation) you need to tell the child objects that the animation is longer than the animation sequence of the parent object.

In this instance, the doors opening is a 30 frame animation. The mirrored door (the child object linked with Channel Follower) needs to be told that the animation is longer. So the animation end needs to be substantially longer than the parent animation. So in my case, the jet will open the landing gear doors and land. then the animation will take place for an additional 20 seconds (one continuous shot) and then take off where the landing gear doors need to close. So this tells me that the child objects animation end frame must be at least 700 frames at 30fps. Otherwise it'll screw up and look like the previous two links.

Damn well took me all day to figure this out.

Cheers!
Arlen