(super-newbie): lines to follow objects

[rikardlassenius]

is there an ellegant solution to getting lines to follow objects. i want to make an animation with a load of names floating around and having connecting lines between them.

so far, i've tried with the names being separate objects and having long polygons (or lines) between them. with parenting and targeting it's easy to have them move together, but the lengths get wrong, and they seem a bit hard to animate manually.

could i solve this with bones? or ...

[Baloney Pony]

Originally posted by rikardlassenius
is there an ellegant solution to getting lines to follow objects. i want to make an animation with a load of names floating around and having connecting lines between them.

so far, i've tried with the names being separate objects and having long polygons (or lines) between them. with parenting and targeting it's easy to have them move together, but the lengths get wrong, and they seem a bit hard to animate manually.

could i solve this with bones? or ...

Unless you are going to see this in 3D - a 2D solution may be best. Using something like After Effects to do as you described and having an orthographic view like you posted would be the easiest way.

If you are going to do it in 3D, then that does present a more difficult solution...

Are you locked in to using LW to do this (not using a 2D prograp)?

[rikardlassenius]

i'd like to do it in 3d, to get all the names in a 3d space. i'm pretty fluent in ae (been doing broadcast design for almost ten years), and tried it already, but in 3d, it got far too complicated. so, that's why i thought of lightwave, which i have, but haven't used much.

maybe all the lines should be a single skelegon?
i'm totally lost...

r

[pblacklock]

rikard, one quick way is to create a master null and have the logo/name objects follow that null.

create a second master null for the lines.

later,
Paul

[rikardlassenius]

hm... how do i get the lenght of the lines to change accordingly, with the nulls?

[richpr]

Most likely with an expression that changes the Scale of the line...or uses the positions of the nulls...

[jb_gfx]

Without going with expressions you could set this up in 2 minutes using SockMonkey dispalcement. Just assign a Weight Map or a Selection set to each line in modeler (except the one that will have to be stretched) then parent each selections to a different Null object within SockMonkey's interface and you are done.

If you want the text to have the same orientation all the time just target it to the camera or to a null (better cause you'll have more control)

Easy, thx LW ;)