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I have a rigged robot. I want to animate it so, that when I rotate or move the bone above the head, named EarMover, the EarRingL and EarBallL will move to the side. I set up an action for this movement. The EarRingL and EarBallL move to the side and back over 40 frames. Now I need to attach the action constraint to the EarRingL and EarBallL bones so that when I rotate (or move) the EarMover bone, the Action will get played.
This is what I don't know, how to set up this action constraint so that one triggers the other?

I'm attaching a screengrab and the blend file. It's educational material for me, based on a freely available tutorial, so it is open-source. You may reuse it freely.

Robot Rig and Action Constraint settings

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Here are some finished constraints. Below Bone.Left has an action constraint.

enter image description here

Below Bone.Right has an action constraint.

enter image description here

In both cases above

  • [Bone.Control] of the armature is the target bone.
  • X location is used.
  • The action name [Armature.C006Action]
  • All settings are the same because we used one armature and this is intended to be a simple example.

In pose mode keyframes were inserted on Bone.left and Bone.Right on frames 1 and 20. Inserting keyframes created actions with a name we can use in the action constraint panel. When Bone control is moved in the X direction here is the result.

enter image description here

The action name came from the DopeSheet/Action Editor Window

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In the image above the action name was created. Saved to the Abstract Vault by clicking the letter F next to the name. The action name is remembered for the constraints. The action is removed from the armature. Repeat. The action is removed from the armature. If you leave it by mistake the action will dominate the [action constraint] and the flexibility you want will not function.

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  • $\begingroup$ I understand now. It has to do with Target Range, Action Range and From Target fields. I had 'zero' values there. Now I set it up and it works. As I understand, the Target Range determines how far (in BU) I have to move (or rotate) the controller bone, to play the action, right? $\endgroup$
    – Aardo
    Sep 18, 2015 at 18:09
  • $\begingroup$ Yes, and its time to rely on your experimentation. $\endgroup$
    – atomicbezierslinger
    Sep 18, 2015 at 18:23
  • $\begingroup$ Ok, will do :-) $\endgroup$
    – Aardo
    Sep 18, 2015 at 18:24

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