How to make a stylized animation of protons & neutrons

[syboots]

New to CGCookie.

I would like to create an animation where 3 spheres placed near each other as in the nucleus of an atom, do not intersect each other like particle instances but they wiggle in place, switches positions while remaining sticked to each other.

Any suggestions how can I do this in blender ?

[spikeyxxx]

There are many ways to do this. For instance with Constraints on the two small Spheres in this example:

The small Spheres will always stick to the surface of the big one…

The Distance is between the Origins and the big Sphere has a radius of 2m and the small ones have a radius of 1m here.

[syboots]

Thank you for the reply. 

Didn’t think of Using modifiers. Its a great idea.  Seems it is the way to go for easily tweakable animations. I will play around with them. 

Got some of it working using Rigid bodies. :(animated gif, wouldn’t animate on the page ) I was planning on animating (with a constant keyframe) the Material color to make it look like they switch locations, though it will still need a random rotation when the color changes to make it convincing. 

Actually your suggestion might be easier, using an expression to randomize the rotation of the spheres. 

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