How do I link two movements together?

Sertorial

I have a prop with two doors and I want to make a morph to open the two doors together by the same amount. So I want to make one morph that goes from "closed" to "open", so that it rotates both doors together.

Any ideas?

Richard Haseltine

Assuming this is DAZ Studio, and that you have your morphs (actually, separate body parts with rotations will be better - otherwise you will get very strange effects as the doors move) you need to use ERC.

Set the doors as you will want them when the control is at 1. Right-click on the Parameters pane, select Edit mode. with the bone you want to have the control slider on, right-click again and select Create New Property..., give it a name and label, set the path (Probably something like PoseControls), set Type to Modifier/Pose and if desired set limits. Right-click on the new slider and select ERC Freeze - check that the only items checked in Freeze properties are the door controls, and click Accept (if you haven't yet memorised the rigging, uncheck Restore Figure Rigging at the bottom of the dialogue - otherwise it doesn't matter if it's checked or not).

Sertorial

Richard Haseltine said:

Assuming this is DAZ Studio, and that you have your morphs (actually, separate body parts with rotations will be better - otherwise you will get very strange effects as the doors move) you need to use ERC.

Set the doors as you will want them when the control is at 1. Right-click on the Parameters pane, select Edit mode. with the bone you want to have the control slider on, right-click again and select Create New Property..., give it a name and label, set the path (Probably something like PoseControls), set Type to Modifier/Pose and if desired set limits. Right-click on the new slider and select ERC Freeze - check that the only items checked in Freeze properties are the door controls, and click Accept (if you haven't yet memorised the rigging, uncheck Restore Figure Rigging at the bottom of the dialogue - otherwise it doesn't matter if it's checked or not).

This is DAZ Studio, yes. But I am not sure what you mean by "assuming you have your morph"? I just have a figure with separate parts. It's the morph I am needing to make.

Will your method make that?

In essence, I just want to create a slider in the parameters tab which will open and close the doors together when I slide it from 0 (fully closed) to 1 (fully open). I have seen this work on many bought props, so I know it's possible

Thanks

EDIT: "morph" may be the wrong word to use for this, as I am not wanting to change a shape. Just create a movement slider for two parts of the prop (the doors)

Sertorial

Actually I see what you mean now and I think I have it. Thanks SO much!

Sertorial

Richard Haseltine said:

Assuming this is DAZ Studio, and that you have your morphs (actually, separate body parts with rotations will be better - otherwise you will get very strange effects as the doors move) you need to use ERC.

Set the doors as you will want them when the control is at 1. Right-click on the Parameters pane, select Edit mode. with the bone you want to have the control slider on, right-click again and select Create New Property..., give it a name and label, set the path (Probably something like PoseControls), set Type to Modifier/Pose and if desired set limits. Right-click on the new slider and select ERC Freeze - check that the only items checked in Freeze properties are the door controls, and click Accept (if you haven't yet memorised the rigging, uncheck Restore Figure Rigging at the bottom of the dialogue - otherwise it doesn't matter if it's checked or not).

I can only seem to make the property affect one door. How do I make it affect both doors? (as I can't select both doors together, it means I have to create an action on each door thus creating two sliders)?

Richard Haseltine

If you open both doors and do the ERC freeze then that should work.

Sertorial

Richard Haseltine said:

If you open both doors and do the ERC freeze then that should work.

but I can only right click on one door at a time to do the ERC freeze. So that only affect one door.

Richard Haseltine

No, you have both doors open and you create the new property on the car body (or on the figure itself). You open both doors, then you right-click on the new control on the car body and do an ERC Freeze.

Sertorial

Richard Haseltine said:

No, you have both doors open and you create the new property on the car body (or on the figure itself). You open both doors, then you right-click on the new control on the car body and do an ERC Freeze.

the doors are child objects of the main figure. If I create the property on the main figure it doesn't open and close the doors (because it's not the main figure that's been moved, it's the doors).

Richard Haseltine

Ah, so they are props not part of a figure? Well, you can still do it (as long as you save the whole assembly as a scene subset) - put the Parameters pane in Edit mode and create the new property on the car body as before, but now right-click on it and choose Show in Property Hierarchy. Expand the entry for your control property down to Sub-Components>First Stage. Now select your doors in turn, with their rotations zeroed, and drag the rotation you want to control into the First Stage list under the controller in the Property Hierarchy. Now expand the options under each of the rotations in the Property Hierarchy to find the Scalar value and set it to the rotation you want when the doors are fully open - say 90 for one and -90 for the other. That's effectively doing manually what ERC freeze does automatically. Once you have the scalars right save.

SickleYield

Sertorial said:

Richard Haseltine said:

No, you have both doors open and you create the new property on the car body (or on the figure itself). You open both doors, then you right-click on the new control on the car body and do an ERC Freeze.

the doors are child objects of the main figure. If I create the property on the main figure it doesn't open and close the doors (because it's not the main figure that's been moved, it's the doors).

If you create a new property in Parameters, then open both doors, then turn on the property, then right-click on the new property in parameters and choose ERC freeze on it, your ERC dialogue should come up with the door open controls both checked.

Sertorial

Richard Haseltine said:

Ah, so they are props not part of a figure? Well, you can still do it (as long as you save the whole assembly as a scene subset) - put the Parameters pane in Edit mode and create the new property on the car body as before, but now right-click on it and choose Show in Property Hierarchy. Expand the entry for your control property down to Sub-Components>First Stage. Now select your doors in turn, with their rotations zeroed, and drag the rotation you want to control into the First Stage list under the controller in the Property Hierarchy. Now expand the options under each of the rotations in the Property Hierarchy to find the Scalar value and set it to the rotation you want when the doors are fully open - say 90 for one and -90 for the other. That's effectively doing manually what ERC freeze does automatically. Once you have the scalars right save.

Aha! That did it!

Thanks Richard :)