Ticking clock

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 10:49 pm

Sometimes the simplest of all solutions just don't dawn to me. I had already started to post in the "How to" section, when the right idea hit me like a brick.

The problem: I have a clock and want to show the hands progressing really visible second by second, but not smoothly.

The workflow: I set the start and end position of one revolution at frames #1 and #61, interpolation to linear (as should be done with all rotations). Now I needed keys on every frame in between. First I started to insert them in the timeline, one by one. Stupid way to do. That's where I wanted to ask the forum.

The faster way: one finger on the right arrow, one on the mouse with the rotate bones toool selected. Press arrow key, click mouse, and a key appears. Repeat until end.

Select all keys and set them to "step". Rescale Keyframes, from #1 - #61 to #1 - #1501 (this is for 25 fps). Watch your realistic clock.

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 12:08 am

Nice tip. It would have taken me awhile to figure that one out as well. Thanks for saving us the figuring.

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 10:53 am

Oh, and I should add that I have the hour hand bone angle controlled by the minute hand bone with a ratio of (guess what) 1/60.

With this, you could construct quite complex machinery with lots of cogs and gears and move them all with rotating just one bone.

toonertime · Post by **toonertime** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 2:55 pm

I was wondering if you would mind posting the clock
ASP file for us to look at? I think I would learn
more about rotation if I could see the file.

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Thu Feb 05, 2009 3:48 pm

There's really nothing to it. You could experiment yourself, all you need is a layer with 3 bones: root, and 2 rotating ones. Everything else I already wrote.

But OK, here you are: http://www.slowtiger.de/examples/clock.anme.zip

And here's a test with clock and cogwheels:
http://www.slowtiger.de/examples/gear.html
Descripion:
viewtopic.php?p=69706#69706

Mikdog · Post by **Mikdog** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 10:21 am

I guess you could also have a layer with the clock arm and set the origin to where the clock arm turns. Then, set a key at 12:00 and 60 frames later set another key at 12:00. Set the interpolation to linear, and if your project's @ 1 frame per second, the clock should work correctly! I haven't tested this but from what I imagine it should work.

Ticking clock

Ticking clock

jez curyus