Well after all the trouble i have had with my computer i needed something to take my mind off thigs so i started on this today. I wasn't going to do any more to it but thought i better ask for comments on anything that may inprove it before i add to my gallery. So go for it, suggestions and comments more than welcome. No drac i'm not putting any poser junk in it ;)

You know, while i was making this, I wasn't thinking crab. It was only when I put the claws on the front and looked from the top down that it reminded me of a crab. And you've just increased that. They really look like crabs now. nice work.

Nice work CDawg, Cool perspective. Phil: I hate to say it...We're infected!!

drawbrige you wouldn't believe what i told the girlfriend they remind me of. I'm an Admin on a game site and they have a droid that is almost like this but without the claws and cabin up front, i'll grab an image of one so you can see how close they look alike.

Message edited on: 01/18/2005 09:11

Oh no!! You've got crabs!!LOL HUGE CRABS! When are you gonna animate this?

I'm not going to, these crabs aren't posable and i haven't learnt that part of bryce yet...gee give us ago, i'm only new to this thing ;)

Probably won't animate very well. It's not poseable (as is) and all the legs are differnt angles and I'm not sure how Bryce would handle that.

Aren't they just the cutest things!....;]

It's not poseable (as is) and all the legs are differnt angles and I'm not sure how Bryce would handle that. If it's modeled so it can be ungrouped into separate parts it should be possible to pose/animate it. It'll be a lot of work and getting all the pivot points set right will be a pain it the butt. Basically place bryce cylinders or whatever in the right spots and set them as parents to the parts they control. Then set the bryce objects being used as the controls to hidden so they don't show in the render.

The splitting and rejoinging and parenting isn't too hard and I do already have bolts where the joints would be, so changing the origin is easy enough. What I don't understand is this (trying to think how to explain it)... If I have a leg which is straight along the x axis, then I can use the x rotate to swivel it. Same with a leg along the y line. But none of the 6 legs I have are on either axis. So the rotate will rotate them off at silly angles. You would have to use a combination of both X and Y rotation s. And thats tricky to do for an animation. So how do I fix that in Bryce so the no matter what the Y rotation of the leg is, the joints still move correctly relative to the joints? Did I explain that well? Somehow I think not.

don't worry Phil, i like my crabs to be stiff...hmm unposable

Message edited on: 01/19/2005 09:29

Are you using object space for rotating the control objects once they're set up? If you use world space it's just going to be confusing. Place cylinders where the pivots are and try to align them. (If it's too tricky to line up you could always make properly placed "controls" in the modeler and still parent and hide them after bringing into bryce.) This method is how I get the canopy door to open on my spaceship models. [edit]-- Oh one more thing... Each segment will probably need a control object. That might be why it's acting a little odd. Same is true for vehicle wheels and such. (I found that separate parent objects are needed to turn the wheels. You can't just parent the wheel to the car and spin wheels and steer at the same time. It gets weird.) Add another control for the pivot on the Y. Then make it a parent for the other controller. It's more work but if done right you can animate the pivot correctly.

Message edited on: 01/19/2005 16:19

Well spin my nipple nuts and call me Susan. You just taught me something in Bryce! Didn't even know it HAD an object space rotation. In that case, it's easy! Might redo it myself.

Either you're being sarcastic or... Well if not, it's that little triangle below and to the right of the move or rotate control thingy. (world Space, object space, and camera space)

Yeah, when you mentioned it, I went to look. Although I am the most sarcastic person in the world, that little feature honestly has never made itself known to me.

hey Susan(Phil) even i knew that was there. just didn't know what it was for till early hours of this morning.