question on world - vehicle property

[stoudbet]

Hi - A student created this world where the tortoise is grabbing the cookie and then turns to face the camera. I understand it is based on the cookie's position and then it moves however the left forearm moves. The cookie flys off the screen. Help?

[jnawrocki]

Hello--

The problem is that the cookie "appears" to be located on top of the table, but, in reality, the cookie is located many meters in front of the table (closer to the camera). Remember this is 3D. So when the tortoise turns to face the camera with the vehicle of the cookie set to the arm of the tortoise, the cookie swings in a very wide arc and appears to "fly off the screen."

The quad view can help you to locate objects on top of other objects. Also, take a look at my solution file. All I did was move the cookie so it is directly on top of the table.

Hope this helps.

[stoudbet]

Hi - thank you. I've looked at things in quad view. And when I see it from the front it looks one way, then from the side a different place. How do you get to move the things in the scene set up so that it is correct from the front?

[jnawrocki]

Hi--

As with you, the depth manipulation of objects (e.g. the cookie on the table) was the hardest for me. Now when I add objects, I move them closer (forward) to the camera and further (backward) from the camera (depth) using the "move objects freely" tool (first tool on the left) in Add Objects mode. To insure that an object is correctly positioned with reference to another object (on top of) I move one object until it passes through another object. For example, in your world I moved the cookie backwards closer to the table (using the move objects freely tool) until the cookie moved through parts of the table. As I moved the cookie backwards, I also had to resize (larger) the cookie and move the cookie down so it was not way above the table. Finally, when the cookie passed through part of the table, I moved the cookie up/down so it rested on the table.

[MrMoke]

An easy option is to rightclick the cookie tab in the World view, and use the "move to" method to move it to the table. This gets it to the target object, and you you can adjust it's position from there.