I'm trying to make a pile of treasure fall from the sky. Origionally I tryed duplication for this, at the link below, but since I've gotten a handle on the VM's Replication and the Assembly's Object Split. The question now is how to get several coins to look like they're being poored out of a big bucket, without actually adding that into the scene.I'm hopin the Origional Angular Velocity fields will break up the Stacked look of replicated coins, as they fall. The question now is how to get a coin to spin directly towards the camera? Here is the coin at 0,0,0.

When I add a 45 degree pitch I then need to add a 45 degrtee Yaw to get the coin to angle toward the camera.

But when I add 45 deg/s' Pitch and Yaw to the Initial Angular Velocity, the coin does'nt spin right into this position? First it spins here..

And then here? Any ideas? I really wish Carrara(And Vue4, I think) had much more Mathmatic standards for expressing direction. In Geometry Y=Up and Down, Z=Forward and Backward, and X=side to side. I'm still not sure how C2 or V4 are supposed to work, as I believe the Forward/Backward and Side/Side expressions are mixed!

Poser has y-up/down, z-front/back, but in Carrara they're actually mapped correctly (z is up/down, x and y are in the ground plane, y is front/back). The problem you're having with those rotations may be "gimbal lock". Various tricks are needed to avoid that.

Just a note as per Mateo_SanCarlos, Gimble lock! A long time ago some coder forgot that tan r = a/b is undefined at b = 0; as you can probably see if you have the math this could potentially happen at 0,90,180,270 degrees. (in my own code I think to make b = to 0.1 if b equals zero); you could adjust your rotation angles accordingly if it is a problem.

For one thing, the camera that C drops into a frame for you as default is in the corner of the universe, (so to speak.) If I am trying to get something accurate to a real life scene, then I move my camera so that it is directly looking in on the 'y' axis. That way all my measurements make sense to the camera as well as in my head. THEN I break the rules and place my camera where I want it to end up in the final animation, (usually a room flythrough.) Placing yuor camera in this direction should allow for a simple angle of velocity IN ONE DIRECTION to help your coin fall towards the camera. Hope this helps!

Moving a camera to the prop is not needed fix here. I'm not to happy about tan =ing anything either! Why are there different rules of direction, I specifically remember my high school geometry teacher expressing's of direction upon the X and Y axis', when Z is used in P5 for forward?

You don't have to know about the math; if you make sure that your rotation angles are not exactly equal to 0,90,180 or 270 by adding 0.01 to the angles "gimble" is not as likely to happen. U.V. coordinate systems use the arctan of (a,b) for either (X,Z) or (Z,Z) AND (X,Y) along with the magnitude. (Two angles measured at right angles and a magnitude). magnitude in 3d can be expressed as a = the square root of (b squated + c squared + d squared) where b,c and d are the lengths of the perspective X,Y and Z coordinates. you can see this is derived from pathagorean theorem. there are other ways of doing it and you don't need to use arctan. I don't think you need to get to complex into the math asspect and I'm sure there is some formula which combines the diravations of the two angles but I just offered it up as one explaination of how "gimble" can occur. . . . I think part of the confusion is that Carrara uses a coordinate system where Y and Z are set up as Z and Y respectively. I was hoping they would change to the more standardized (X,Y,Z) but as of C2.1 anyway they have not. . . . as to the original problem, look at duplication. Set up a coin duplicate move the duplicate some angle and magnitude towards the camers and duplicate again(ctrl d). bear in mind there are two (X,Z,Ys) center and hot point. as well as options for global or local coordinates and rotate about hotpoint or object center. There's also "physics" such as diectional force you might want to play with

oops Y,Z not Z,Z

Wow, this is intense. I remember the Pathagorean theorem! I'll have to give your gimble lock fix a try, ASAP. Physics are what I'm trying to accomplish. I've replicated this coin several times over to make them fall from the sky, and hit a plane, as if thrown by an angel(That'll show up later in the scene. But when I replicate the new object looks like a very smooth stack of casino chips when they fall. Hopefully Physics>Initial Angular Velocity will break this up some, as the Directional Force is applied also.