Reply To: Collab 2020: Modeling Heavy Equipment (Backhoe)

[Shawn Blanch]

@spikeyxxx not only explained it well with one sentence but provided a clear picture! What a stud.

@theluthier Let say that P and P.001 were not aligned in the first place and now your job it to align them. P must point at P.001 and yet P.001 must also Point at P. How to do that without a circular argument makes my head hurt haha.

If I need to move P around to re-position it Then I want P and P.001 to keep looking at each other.

This is what knowing this will solve for me:

Basically I have to line my assembly up with:

1 Align with Itself (I have lots of objects that pivot and join together on both ends within my loader arm assembly) AND 

2 Align with the Loader Bucket on one end AND 

3 Align with the Chassis on the other end. 

If I modeled everything together I could completely control all of that but at this point I am depending on @pfbourassa‘s changes and the changes from @adrian2301 for the chassis. Currently I have #1 and #2 under control but I am having a hard time getting my entire assembly moving to align to #3 while maintaining that relationship to #1 and #2. It’s been turning into a little of a nightmare haha. If @pfbourassa or @adrian2301 moves their pin holes because they needs more room then I need to be able to adjust my assembly accordingly to match them. My part is the middle man and should probably conform to the others

@spikeyxxx  is on point with perhaps bones/empties/contraints. I am not so much concerned about the animation as I am about keeping things lined up if there are any more changes.