Thank you both...your suggestions helped.

Mike

Thank you.

Mike

Sachiko,

The link you posted was to the GIF file not the Carrara file...can you post the Carrara file?

Thanks,

Mike

Thank you Robert...

Very nice work. But what I am interested in is animating the landing gear struts.

Mike

Very good! That gives me something to work with. Is it possible for you to post the Carrara file?

Mike

In any case is there any way to do this in Carrara?

Mike

Well it looks like I cant upload the video for some reason.

Mike

Here is the video...

At first it seemed that in this thread there were two issues:

1. A light following the character
2. A particle emitter following the movement of the girl's hand.

I was addressing the first issue. The Track modifier will "track" the object as it moves, instead of "pointing" at it as the Point At modifier would do. You simply select Track from the same list that Point At is on and choose the object you want to track, that's pretty much it. It definately gives you different results than the Point At modifier.

Now as far as the second issue, I must agree with Mark that if you make the emmitter a child of any part of the character it will move with that part of the character. Something the folks confuse is Grouping and making Parent-to-Child hierarchies, because the set-up is so similar. 

If you group (Edit>Group or Ctrl+G) an object with other objects that does not gurantee that they will move as desired. In order for this to work you must make the emitter a child of the hand, some part of the hand, or a prop on the hand. To make the emitter a child of the hand simply drag it onto the hand or prop object in the Instances tab of the Properties tray.

I have Poser 7 because I just go through writting an article on it. I dont think that Carrara 5 imports Poser 7 data, otherwise I would try it myself. Maybe you can post your exported Poser animation (the sample) in Carrara format, that way we can play with it.

Mike

Have you tried using the Track modifier to make the light follow an object? That works nicely.

Mike

Try the Carrara 5 Pro Handbook.

Hello,

Get a copy of the Carrara 5 Pro Handbook. It has recieved great reviews from 3DWorld magazine, and its going into its second printing. Written by myself and other Carrara users it is a good resources chock full of tutorials in modeling and animation.

Check it out at amazon.com

Mike

MachineClaw, the funny thing is that I not only solicted requests from the user groups (search the Yahoo group) I also posted regular updates on the book and its contents. At that time I never heard anyone complain. And not many really bothered to make suggestions. And on the Hexagon issue that was a request from the group. The only people that worked with me on the contents were Bob and Charles at Eovia. I actually sent them the entire table of contents to get their feedback. I never intended to write a "manual" with tiny tutorials on each and every tool or new feature. That is why there is a manual. The book I wrote not only teaches how to use Carrara, but when you are done you understand how 3D works. Most books will teach you what buttons to push to get a result. That is simply not how I write or teach. For instance where else can you can an complete turorial on modeling an entire human being in Carrara and then learn to make them walk? Or where can you learn how to do lip synching in Carrara? I approached the book from a real-world, project based point of view. As I said in a previous response, I hear a lot of complaining but I don't see anyone stepping up to write this all inclusive, "magical" book that everyone is wishing for. It's real easy to critize. Mike

I have politley tried several times to explain in the forums and groups what the book is really about. It seems that several people here are simply out to make thier nit-pikcy points at all cost repeating the same thing over and over. Several people (other than me) have also tried to explain how books are produced and written and but the nit-pickers seem to be stuck on the same gear. If you look at the back of the book it clearly states that the book is for Beginner/Intermidiate users. Now, if I write a book that covers only all the cool features and teaches people how to work with new tools but they don't have a foundation of 3D basics the book would be truely useless. I don't only write books but I have been a college teacher for many years and I approach my books much the same way I teach. Starting from the beginning and bulding on the fundamentals and moving to more advanced topics as space, time and schedules allow. Several people have pointed out that a book that covered everything in Carrara would be about 1200 pages, which is a conservative estimate. Unfortunately, reality steps in at this point because publishers are not willing to invest tens of thousands of dollars into a book about a program that has a limited user base. To set the rercord straight I DO NOT make any money writing Carrara books. In fact I take a huge paycut for the months that I write/edit the book. None of the contributors make any money. And my publisher has bearly recouped thier investment in the first Carrara book if at all. In fact, I wrote a book on Photoshop and 3ds max that has done very well and was recently translated into Japanese. That book has sold well because Photoshop and 3ds max have millions of users. I write Carrara books because out of a sincere desire to help out the Carrara community. However, it is apparent to me from the comments here and the Yahoo group that I may be wasting my time trying to do a good thing for the Carrara community. Maybe I should stick to writing books that will be apprecited by their communities and will make me some money. As you can tell I am getting irritated with the same old comments being repeated over and over. I have tried to be nice in both the Yahoo group and here but its getting me no where. To those of you continue to by unfairly critical why don't you try your hand at writing your own Carrara book, instead of just complaining? Mike

Thank you for your wise comments LCB. I appreceiate your point of view. I believe that honest criticism is a good thing and it improves things. However, being nasty and negative and then not offering any constructive comments or not stepping up to the plate yourself and saying something like, "I will spend six months writting my own Carrara book" is really easy to do. Criticizing and complaining and then doing nothing is easy. Mike