How to make objects interact with objects

[Wee_Poppet]

Am trying to make some of the animals play instruments, but for the life of me can't figure out how. I can position the instrument so it LOOKS like they're about to play them, but when I change views I can see they're not in the right place. Is there a way to make the animal and the instrument one linked object? So that I can treat it as part of the animal?

:confused:

[xEnDoNx]

Hey Wee_poppet,
a simple solution to your problem is to select the quad-view option, when you are adding your objects. When you are adding objects in that view, you can move the objects left and right up and down from multiple different views, this way you know you are lined up. when you are done adding the objects, if you select the musical instrument that you want to have stay with the animal, use the set vehicle method to keep the instrument with the animal. The set vehicle method is located in the methods of the class. hope this helps ya.

xEnDoNx

[chuck]

Here are two ideas that might help:

First, to coordinate the movements of two objects, make one a vehicle for the other. in your case, once the instrument is in place, change the vehicle property on the instrument's properties tab to be the bug. Then, whenever the bug moves the instrument will follow. The instrument will stay in position relative to the bug. You can also make one object's vehilce be a subpart of another object. For example, instead of making a person the vehicle for a ball, you could make the person's hand or foot the vehicle for the ball.

Second, on positioning objects --

I've found that it's often easier to position object using primitive methods than by using the click and drag approach. You can right-click on the object's tile in the object tree, then select methods on the menu that appears, then use one of the methods to position the object.

For example, to line up a volleyball with a coach, you can right click on the volleyball tile, select methods, then select volley ball move to and pick coach as the target. This will put the coach and the volleyball in the same spot, which is not quite correct, so then right click on the volley ball tile again, and in a similar manner use the simple move instruction to separate them and move the ball up, down, left or right a a short amount into position. (You could also choose a part of the coach, such as his hand or foot, as the target location for the move to instruction.)

Actually, a combination of using prinmitive methods and clicking and dragging is probably best. ... and don't forget the magic of the undo button. It's sometimes a lot easier backing up a step or two than re-moving something.