Animating Geometries
Geometries of models can be animated in Patchwork 3D using the kinematics hierarchy available in Shaper.
Nodes, or parts, in the hierarchy are animated in one of three ways: freely (by rotation or translation along any of the three principal axes), by rotation along an axis, or by translation along a vector. As part of a hierarchy, child nodes are animated with their parent nodes. This allows you to create functional hierarchies and complex moving parts.
For example, a car door part might rotate along an axis running through its hinges. The range of its rotation is delimited by the angles of its open and closed positions. You might also have a child part for the car window, which is a constituent part of the door but which can also be raised and lowered independently of the door's position. In this example, when the door is opened, the entire door, including the window at its current position, moves. This hierarchical configuration allows you to animate both parts of your model distinctly and simultaneously, though the position and orientation of one has an influence on the position and orientation of the other.
Each part in the hierarchy consists of two elements:
A null object, a translation vector or a rotation axis for which animation parameters are defined.
A group of Shaper objects associated with the part, to be animated according to the animation parameters of the null, the vector or the axis with which they are associated.
Animating the geometry of your model begins in Shaper:
To animate the geometry of your model, you will first need to define a functional kinematics hierarchy of parts for your model. This can be accomplished in the Kinematics tab of the Shaper sidebar. At this stage, you will indicate what type of motion is necessary for each functional part: will it be freely transformed, will it rotate around an axis or will it move along a vector?
For each part, you will need to set the properties that define how it is supposed to behave when animated. You define the degrees of rotation and the translation distance for each part. You also have precise control over the position and orientation of the null object, the axis of rotation, or the translation vector along which the part will be animated.
A group of surfaces must be selected and assigned to the part as children.
It is also possible to link animated changes to the position and orientation of a part or a surface to those of another part or surface using the animation constraints available in the Kinematics tab.
Once the animation has been added in Shaper, the Matter tools allowing you to visualize this animation on a product will be available. You can:
Review moving parts using Animation Sliders
,Add moving parts to a timeline using channel animations for real-time playback, use in Live mode, or for generating videos.