I am trying to make a simple flight animation (read banking, loops, barrel rolls, turns) I have run into two problems. I cant seem to get lightwave to align banking to path. Is there a way to get the program to do this, or must it be done by hand, keyframe by keyfame? Also, in trying to execute a loop, when my object goes past vertical (goes from normal to inverted flight), the heading flips 0 to -180(understandable). However at the same time, the pitch remains the same, so the aircraft esentially flips arround its z axis. I can't seem to find a workable solution for this. Does anyone know of a plugin that effectively simulates aircraft flight modeling? Any help is greatly appriciated.
Joe

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Which version of LW are you using?

There's an easy way to have your object align to it's motion path . . .

It would help to know what version you're using though . . .

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(url="http://"http://mailto:antonpn@mac.com")antonpn@mac.com(/url)

Yeah, sorry, i am running 7.5, i specifically was intrested in banking to path. But I am also very intrested in knowing how to fix the problem with a looping Aircraft. Does anyone know a motion plugin that simulates flight accurately.
Joe

(This message has been edited by jdh545 (edited 05-28-2002).)

You could use expressions to link the heading (and possibly the velocity) of your object to the bank channel which would allow you to have a kind of automatic banking . . .

Other than that . . . I've messed around with trying to use the align path to get something do do a loop . . . no luck yet. If I figure something out I'll post it . . . or I could send you a scene file or something.

You may have to break down and hand keyframe the animation . . . .
doesn't sound like fun though . . .

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(url="http://"http://mailto:antonpn@mac.com")antonpn@mac.com(/url)

I tried with little success. I am sure I could keyframe every frame (use motion baker) but I am sure that I dont want to (especially since that will make future path editing nearly impossible). I guess I'll go try to get Inside LW 7. Anyway., Thanks. Ill aks in a few other forums.
Joe

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You'll probably need to add a couple nulls in there as well. Give one null the translation path, and set it to always be oriented tanget to the path. You can barrel roll on the ship, and the null wouldn't care. It might even get rid of your loop problems.

Matrix

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"Nothing is fool-proof to a sufficiently talented fool."