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I have a simple gauge that I want to animate to make the green part fill the gauge progressively.

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The whole gauge is also slowly rotating on its Y axis while this is happening.

I tried looking online for help, but couldn't find any. I also looked for a long time in several places such as the Object panel to try and find the coordinates of this edge loop, but didn't find them.

I'm probably doing something wrong.

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    $\begingroup$ You may do it using shapekeys. $\endgroup$ – Paul Gonet Oct 20 '15 at 11:41
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You may do this using Shape Keys. enter image description here

Being in Object Mode go to the Data header and in a Shape Keys panel add a key (press the '+' button) and name it location. Enable the apply shapekeys in edit mode option. Now enter the Edit Mode, change the location key value to 1 and slide your edge loop along the object. Next set the location key value back to 0.
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Go to frame 1 on your timeline, hover your cursor over the Value slider in a Shape Keys panel and press I to insert a keyframe. enter image description here

Go to the next desired frame on your timeline, change the shapekey Value to 1 and press I again. enter image description here

Now insert the keyframe for rotation. Being in Object Mode, in 3D window go to frame 1 and press I-->LocRotScale (or just Rotation). enter image description here

Go to the next desired frame on your timeline, rotate your object (R) and press I-->LocRotScale again.
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If you want a constant movement of your animation go to the Graph Editor, press T and change the keyframe interpolation type to Linear.
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Remember, that you can change the duration of inserted keyframes animation. Go to the Dope Sheet Editor, select the desired action and place it (using G) wherever you like on a timeline. In my case I've increased the green gauge speed. enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ Thank you very much! My "+" button in the Shape Keys data panel is greyed out, both when the object is selected and isn't, you know why that could be? $\endgroup$ – MicroMachine Oct 20 '15 at 20:17
  • $\begingroup$ That's because you are in the Edit Mode. You can add new shapekeys (usng '+' button) being in Object Mode only. $\endgroup$ – Paul Gonet Oct 20 '15 at 20:29
  • $\begingroup$ Wait, so I have to apply them in Object mode but then I have to go back to Edit mode to modify the object right? When I rotate the shape then play the animation, it shrinks towards the middle and then becomes the normal site again, is this normal? ge.tt/5Rh6gSQ2/v/0 oh and also when I press i (it's a i, right? looks like a L) I get "active shape key index" property cannot be animated $\endgroup$ – MicroMachine Oct 21 '15 at 21:25
  • $\begingroup$ You add new shapekeys in Object Mode and edit them in Edit Mode. Probably your mesh shrinks, because the origin point isn't inside it. Place the origin point in the center of your object and apply the loc, rot and scale (Ctrl+A in Object Mode) and then edit the shapekeys. About the "active shape key index property cannot be animated'' problem- to keyframe the shapekey value (by pressing 'I'- like Independence) you need to place your cursor over the value, not the keyframe name (the name cannot be keyframed but the value can). Btw, the link you posted is broken. $\endgroup$ – Paul Gonet Oct 21 '15 at 23:22
  • $\begingroup$ Sorry about the link being broken. I followed this: blender.stackexchange.com/questions/5519/… But the shape still shrinks when I apply the rotation. Here's the screen grab I was trying to share earlier; youtube.com/watch?v=f86ZHLwqmnM&feature=youtu.be $\endgroup$ – MicroMachine Oct 22 '15 at 9:38

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