Animation tricks for noobs.

[ThePyrateCaptain]

By now you have run into the classic definition on how to animate something. The good ol, "you have to build a pivot, a base, a node collider etc.." we'll I'm here to tell ya there's an easier way.

CFG FILES. It can all be done there.

Mumechservo module. Look at the parts cfg files, the lower half will do the trick. All you have to do is import the part, add that part of the cfg file, and adjust the three 0, 0, 0 parts for movement.

Any part can be made to move.

I even have a collapsible docking tube. Experiment, it's fun.

[musicpenguin]

I dont get what you're saying. Explain more with pictures.

[ThePyrateCaptain]

I dont get what you're saying. Explain more with pictures.

It's really simple. Say you want an animated landing gear on a vehicle, but have no idea how they have done it, damned robotics has a mod out there with a cylinder, a rotator, hinge, and stuff. Look at his examples. Or even better, download the yt1300 now don't try to run it, but look at the parts, specifically the boarding hatch and landing gear. Read the cfg files, below the general part parameters there is a section, that's all you need to animate anything. With a button console.

The gods that be, and they will pipe in sooner or later, won't like this, but hey, modding is for everyone, not the elite few that have been doing it since forever, cut n paste, nothing wrong with that, everyone does it, only a few admit to it. I am a CNP guy.

Edited April 25, 2013 by ThePyrateCaptain

[tom1499]

Or just use moduleAnimateGeneric....

[ThePyrateCaptain]

For hinges and rotators:

//toggle parameters

Rotatejoint = true

Rotate axis = 0,0,0. "that's the x y z"

Keyrotatespeed = 20.0 "that's the speed of movement"

Rotatelimits = true

Rotatemin = -10.0

Rotatemax = 10.0

Rotatelimitrevertkey = false

Jointspring = 0

Jointdamping = 0

Onactivate = false

Rotatekey = up

Revrotatekey = down

Fixedmesh = base

Servoname = new joint. " name it what ever you like"

For hinges replace the "rotate" word with the word "translate"

Pretty easy. Using this you can make a jet engine rotate like a true VTOL engine. And stuff like that.

Enjoy.

[ThePyrateCaptain]

Or just use moduleAnimateGeneric....

Exactly. Don't ask for animation help from the gods, become a heathen and improvise.

[tom1499]

I made a fully working vtol engine using no mods. All you do is setup your deploy animation and set thrust transform as a child of your nozzle, then with ModuleAnimateGeneric you can deploy, voila vtol.

Edited April 25, 2013 by tom1499

[Netris]

So, if I understand what you said correctly. Is it possible to make an animation to a piece which has no animation in the first place ? For example, I have an old solar panel from .17, will I be able to make it deploy by using your trick ?