Please God I Beg You Help Me!

[sparksfly]

I am trying to write an expression that keeps a bone from going below a plane. I am new to LW, but not new to animation and have a background in programming, so be as in depth as you like.

Please help me. None of the stuff I've read or researched has been helpful, and I'm running out of time.

It seems like it should be a simple problem, but it's just not working.

I'm in 7.5. I have bones parented to an object. The object is rotating, but intersects with a plane. I want the bones to "collide" with the plane, keeping them from passing through and thereby deforming the object.

This is the expression as written so far. Note: For some reason the expression editor won't recognize the bones, and therefore continues to spit out a "referenced channel does not exist" error.

[GenericPSR_Fin_4.Bone.009.Position(Time).y]<[Poke-Ground (2).Position.Y]

I have made many revisions and changes, but this is the heart of the expression. Please add or edit any of it to make it work. I'm dying here.

Thank you extremely,
--SparksFly

[JDaniel]

Can yoy explain your object setup a little more? Maybe we can think of other ways.
Are your bones controlling your object? And these bones you want to have collision w/ another object, and deform it?
I think collision works w/ geometry not bones in LW? Not sure?

[sparksfly]

Originally posted by JDaniel
Can yoy explain your object setup a little more? Maybe we can think of other ways.
Are your bones controlling your object? And these bones you want to have collision w/ another object, and deform it?
I think collision works w/ geometry not bones in LW? Not sure?

Think of this.
a Tire. Bones are inside the tire and are meant to deform the tire. They are not controlling the object, they are just meant to create a deformation. When a bone rolls into its lowest position (ie: the ground) it is to collide with a plane, thereby not allowing the bone to pass through the ground, deforming the object.

I heard somewhere that you can't do a collision between a plane and a bone. Is that true?

[JDaniel]

I haven't approached this scenerio before. Don't know. Interesting setup though. Never tried that , but I understand what you're saying.
Hopefully someone will post some suggestions instead of spam.

[jin choung]

howdy,

if you need a solution to this in a hurry, try contacting jennifer lynn hachigan.

she can do this effect using MOTION DESIGNER. you can get the DEFORMATION (like footsteps in snow) but you'll have to control the deepness of the step yourself (either through manual keyframing or with an expression that simply clamps the maximum depth of a step).

yep, sometimes NOT using an expression is the better and faster way to go.

jin