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Constraining the "look at" constraint

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BogusException

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Jun 1, 2007, 12:37:41 PM6/1/07
to 3d studio max
OK...

I thought I knew 3ds pretty good, and thought I could find an answer
all on my own for a tutorial I'm writing for my blog, but I can't. I'm
looking for help, ideas, suggestions.

Quick version: Need to restrict the look at constraint to only 1 axis.

That might not be enough, so let me give a better use case. When you
buy certain collections of people, lets say, they come as an image
with mask, not as an actual model. These are for large crowds that
don't move, stills, or distance work. Either way, you want the planes
(basically) to have their "content" side facing the camera at all
times. The problem is that the look at constraint won't do this (as
far as I can tell). It will present the object to the camera from any
aspect you choose, but once selected, the object presents that same
relationship to the camera.

So "Why is this a problem?" you ask? Well, as long as the camera
stays, in this case, the same "height" above the object, and the same
distance away from it, all is well. However when the camera (or other
object(s) it is constrained to) moves closer or in the vertical
directions, the constrained object (expectedly) keeps looking at the
camera, which strays it from vertical.

So if you had a person object with a look at constraint to a camera
from any distance, the object would unrealistically lay flat on the
ground as the camera passed overhead.

Solution?

There needs to be a way to tell a look at constrained object to look
at the controller (camera, etc.) by only rotating in, say, the Z axis-
no others.

I've tried with dummy objects, but still can't find a way to give the
camera complete freedom.

Ideas?

TIA!

Bogus Exception

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BogusException

unread,
Jun 1, 2007, 10:46:09 PM6/1/07
to 3d studio max
Yayo,

You're a funny guy! Thanks for the tip. I posted the tutorial at:

http://blog.atcp.us/2007/06/01/easy-trees-part-3/

Thanks!

On Jun 1, 4:45 pm, Yayo <eduy...@gmail.com> wrote:
> PLz tell me if I understood the problem, was that what you were looking for
> appart from girls and money?

Mike

unread,
Jun 1, 2007, 11:20:07 PM6/1/07
to 3d studio max
NOTE:
a few replies were deleted per request, due to personal information
being posted.
Some information may be missing. thanks.

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