2
$\begingroup$

I know this question isn't directly blender related, but I hope someone with more experience with the animation nodes addon could point me in the right direction.

I'm currently trying to create a animation that should kind of do this animation nodes cubes

For this version I used Animation Nodes with a Spline Falloff, which kind of works. Though you have to use the AnimAll addon so you can animate the spline that is used for the falloff.

This gets really fiddly as you have to animate more and more points that move to the next point.

I'm wondering if there isn't a more elegant solution for this. Something like an "effector/null Object" Moving along the spline affecting the cubes closest to it? I know you can use object falloffs but as they move away from the cubes..they would come up again. I tried some things with this but can't find a way to get it work.

It would be great if someone could point me in the right direction here.

Cheers Daniel

Edit for clarification: The problem that I have is, that I also need to animate multiple cubes at once (as seen below always two in a row) so going with an idea is not really working as the delay makes them move one after another. I'm also going to animate a harvester along the lines which will take longer to take the curve between the rows..so a delay will only work if I speed up this animation.

$\endgroup$

1 Answer 1

3
$\begingroup$

First you may try the Delay Falloff node, it will rely on the order of the objects.

Node Tree 1

If the order of the objects is not what you want, you may consider using the Selection Order ID Key Method:

Node Tree 2

Check the Documentation for other ordering methods.

And of course you can sort objects using the Sort List node, and sort objects by name:

Node Tree 3

Or based on the object's y location.

Node Tree 4

Or in a slightly more complicated method, by using the formula e.location.y + (e.location.x)/1e5 Which will make the animation start from the left instead of the right. Which is exactly what you want I suppose.

node Tree 5

Exact solution to your problem:

Node Tree 6

Lets say your grid is composed of n objects, you instance the cube 2n times, n cube for the right one and n cube for the right one, so 2n in total. Then you edit the first n objects as you wish in whichever method you like, then you offset the final vectors couple of units in the required direction and then combine both the unoffsetted and offsetted vectors and transform the objects based on them.

$\endgroup$
2
  • $\begingroup$ Wow great knowledge here! Thanks already! I've seen the ID before, what kept me from fooling around with it was, that I want to always have 2 "cubes" appear at once. And following the ID's, selecting always two in a row the would pop up, left, right..next step, left right..and so on. I could get around that by joining the two cubes together of course. I'm basically trying to create a "field" where a harvester drives along and the cubes in front of it are dropping into the floor (and staying there)..that's why I tried the "effector" way as it could just move in front of the harvester. $\endgroup$ Oct 11, 2017 at 14:18
  • $\begingroup$ @DanielFriedenberger You don't have to join two cubes to achieve the effect, you just have to note that the second object is just an offset of the first. Do you want an example of that? $\endgroup$
    – Omar Emara
    Oct 11, 2017 at 16:23

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .