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I am animating a roulette ball spinning around the roulette wheel using a follow path constraint. Currently it is doing just what I wanted it to do.

However, I need to be able to keyframe animate the ball to move away from the curve and fall into one of the number holes.

I thought I would be able to keyframe the influence at the point I wanted the ball to leave the curve (ie... 100% frame 200, 0% frame 201) However when I do this the ball moves to a completely different location. Unfortunately I can't upload the blend file due to license issues, but I've included some frame captures to try and show the problem.

FP_problem2

FP_problem3

EDIT I just wanted to say thanks for all the help on this problem. The help I got here was just what was needed. If you want to check out the roulette wheel animation its here roulettewheel animation You will find it in the credits towards the end of the video.

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  • $\begingroup$ Remember that you can always make an object a slave to any empty or path that you wish. And you can hand off an object from one constraint to another by using the Influence sliders. So if at one point the ball is following the circular path and then you want it to suddenly take a different route, all you need to do is keyframe the Influence sliders so that the circular path's influence fades out as an empty or other path takes over. Make sense - or do you need further details? $\endgroup$
    – Mentalist
    Commented Sep 30, 2015 at 19:18
  • $\begingroup$ @tim, batfinger and Mentalist Thank you for your replies, sounds like I have a few options. One issue I have that i did not think of when posting is the numbers portion of roullete wheel actually spin in the opposite direction of ball... so once I animate the ball to move off of the circular curve...it needs to bounce a little while settling into a hole, but that part of the wheel (the grey area shown in the example will still be rotating so I need to have the ball stay in the hole and continue to stay there while the grey portion rotates to a gradual stop. Any Ideas ? $\endgroup$
    – harleynut97
    Commented Oct 1, 2015 at 1:15
  • $\begingroup$ Hey I just wanted to followup and let you know I incorporated a couple of the suggestions that were made, and they worked good. I'm currently rendering the animation now. $\endgroup$
    – harleynut97
    Commented Oct 2, 2015 at 12:12
  • $\begingroup$ Good! Glad it worked out for you. Happy blending. $\endgroup$
    – Mentalist
    Commented Oct 2, 2015 at 12:56
  • $\begingroup$ @harleynut97 I like your final result. If the answer below helped you out, you should upvote it and consider marking it as answered. $\endgroup$
    – Samoth
    Commented Mar 21, 2016 at 21:27

1 Answer 1

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The ball is returning to its original position before the follow path constraint was applied.

Pre-constraint Pre constraint With follow path constraint active with follow path on With follow path constraint at 0 influencefollow path constraint at 0

What this means is that that object (the ball or the cube) is now animatable.

I'd suggest inserting one location & rotation key on the ball before the constraint is turned off (frame 200), then on the same frame that it has been switched off (frame 201), change the location of the ball to where it should be in relation to the animation (as it would have returned to its original position) and insert a key frame (LocRot). From there onwards you will be able to hand animate the ball.

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  • $\begingroup$ The VisualLocRot keyframe gives you the global coords of object, LocRot on 200 & influence 1 VisualLocRot on 201 (while folllow path still 1) , then key in influence 0. $\endgroup$
    – batFINGER
    Commented Sep 30, 2015 at 14:04

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