open/close 2 doors at the same time

[JAH_P]

Im having trouble (again).. this time - I need to open/close two doors at the
same time with the activation being from a button (object) that is not linked
to the doors. How can i get this done? In addition to this, can i get lights to
turn on/off at this very same moment. For instance green light you can open the
door... red light door is already open.. or in process of open/close. Any help
is appreciated!

[tyree_2]

there is a pause and play command for animations. If you look in the help files you should find it

[JAH_P]

great feature!! But..... unfortunately i cant get it to function for both doors
to animate at the same time. So far which ever door i place it on first is the
only to work. Also if i group the object in 3DS before importing it in then the
animation doesnt work at all. Any quick answers -- ive got to give up tonight
and send out something for the client, would be great with function but if
not.. id still like to know the answer for future work. Thanks.

[tyree_2]

once grouped the animation is attached to the group not the individual doors address the group. member(1).model("group01") something along these lines use 3dpi

[JAH_P]

hmmm.. message didnt send, lets try this again..
When i group everything in max before export, then import into director i no
longer have the ability to attach the play animation function on the file. no
sure what to do... when i export the file from max and preview it..when they
are separate objects they will animate in the preview, when grouped nothing
moves in the preview (not sure if this is trying to tell me something). Also,
would it help to try grouping once in director? ..... what did you mean by "use
3dpi"?

[duckets]

Do you really need to use pre-rendered animations to open doors? If they just
swing on a hinge or slide open, perhaps you could simply use 'rotate' or
'translate' commands to rotate or slide the door object to the correct
position, frame by frame? That's how I'd approach it unless they are unusual
doors with bits that slide in different directions such as a complex airlock or
something.

- Ben

[tyree_2]

use 3dpi to find out information in the scene like what animation is attached to what object and the name of that animation
you may not be addressing the animations by the right name

[dsdsdsdsd]

jah_p,

I would use an object-oriented approach, using parent scripts as the object
envelop, so to speak;

if you are not familiar with object-oriented programming, you would need at
least a day to get it under control; once you have figured it out you would
create one generic 'door' object which would have rotation amounts and opening
and closing methods/functions in it;

when you would instantiate a new door 'object' you would feed it the door
model that you want to open/close;
example:
[ code]
global purple_door_object
global yellow_door_object

on startmovie
purple_door = member("your_world").model("purple_door")
purple_door_object = script( "generic_parent_script_for_doors" ).new( me ,
purple_door )
yellow_door = member("your_world").model("yellow_door")
yellow_door_object = script( "generic_parent_script_for_doors" ).new( me ,
yellow_door )
end
[/code]

so at the beginning of the movie you create the door 'objects';

later when you press a button or whatever you would call one of these objects,
or both, and tell them to do their thing, such as 'open';
example:

global purple_door_object
global yellow_door_object

on someevent
purple_door_object.open_it( )
yellow_door_object.open_it( )
end

your generic door object parent script would look something like this:

property this_door_model
property  total_degrees_to_open
property amount_to_open_each_frame

on new me  ,  arg_door_model
this_door_model =  arg_door_model
total_degrees_to_open = 85
amount_to_open_each_frame = 3
return me
end

on open_it  me
-- the 'me' thing is confusing; you will have to read up on it; I can't
explain it;
-- here you will probably create a timeout object that will call a rotate
script every 50 milliseconds or so; and you will have to do the math to see if
the door is completely open yet; if so then kill the timeout
end

I hope that this helps;

dsdsdsdsd

[JAH_P]

First off to duckets - Yes this is unfortunately an airlock! HA! good guess.
The more i get into this the more animations i want to function with the press
one "object". So rotate and transform dont look like they will help at all. (at
least from what i understand with these two functions) Unfortunately im still
hoping tyree_2 can shuffle through my confusion to help me with the 'play
animation' function. Otherwise ive got to look at what dsdsdsdsd put together
for me.. and ive got to be honest here director is a great program but code and
i dont get along, so drag and drop functions are always the way id rather go!
<- but this is indeed the reason im having this problem to begin with.
I will however give this a try and yes it will probably take a day or two to
even grasp what you've type out. I'll post a follow up hopefully this weekend.
Thanks again for all the time spent in helping me figure this out!

[hondo3000]

at the moment i don't have enough time to explain the situation completely.
this is little bit different from your problem, but explains how to controll
the keyframeplayer. It is designed to work with files that are created with
cinema4D where the name of a keyframeanimation is named as the model.
i think in max the exported keyframeanimation has at the end of the name the
string "-key".

Maybe you take a look at this example:

[url]http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/webforums/forum/messageview.cfm?forumid=11&catid=26[/url]
8&threadid=1088540&highlight_key=y&keyword1=open%2 0doors

I think you can extract something out of it. You would have to create an event
where two keyframeplayer are activated at the same time...

hope you can extract something out of it...

cheers!

[tyree_2]

you can try linking one door to the other in max but I suspect its a naming problem, when you use the play command. when you use a seperate animation for each door there should be no problem