Wire parametering a rolling ball in 3ds Max? (How to make a rolling ball in 3ds Max)

Wintersun

Hello, I've been banging my head against the wall for like 5 hours now and still can't figure out a way to make a ball roll with wire parameters. I can do it in 2 separate axis' but the problem shows itself when they are combined. I used all my math knowledge as well but no luck.

I have to use it for the wheel of my robot I created. It's actually not a wheel but a single ball like point ball pens.

any help would be really appreciated a lot. Thank you.

Wintersun

Since nobody answered as I'll bump it with some pictures of the progress of the model. The eyes are inspired from Cozmo robot toy.

Wintersun

After searching for another 2 or 3 hours I found out that it is called Quaternion something and seems it cannot be done with wire parameters in 3ds max. It is somehow possible through animating and moving rotating by hand and That's a lot of work. I'm still hoping someone comes with better news but as far as I know it can't be done through wire parameters.

throttlekitty

Quick sanity check first, aside from the creative challenge, are we going to be able to see the ball rotate? There's not a lot of detail on it and the body has a wide base.

I think expressions would be the way to go, though I'm not much of an animator or a Max user. This thread at least talks about the problem, though it's Maya-centric and seems to be resolved with a Maya function, but maybe there's enough to get you started. This one skips the "easy" stuff, but is for Max at least.

Eric Chadwick

Another possible resource. Have you seen this?
CGTalk: Rotating a ball in the direction of it's movement

Wintersun

throttlekitty said:

Quick sanity check first, aside from the creative challenge, are we going to be able to see the ball rotate? There's not a lot of detail on it and the body has a wide base.

I think expressions would be the way to go, though I'm not much of an animator or a Max user. This thread at least talks about the problem, though it's Maya-centric and seems to be resolved with a Maya function, but maybe there's enough to get you started. This one skips the "easy" stuff, but is for Max at least.

Well because I've not been able to roll it like the way I want I haven't textured it, but it is unwrapped and ready for some texture. I wanna put some lines that shows the rolling IF I'm able to do it. Thanks for the links. I've checked the reddit one before but not the egg roll script. will check that. Thank you.

Eric Chadwick said:

Another possible resource. Have you seen this?
CGTalk: Rotating a ball in the direction of it's movement

Thanks, I'm gonna check them. Found this link in the thread you mentioned that has complete explanation and a working script, tho it has to be on a path to work. Being on a path is a bit harder to work, for me at least. I hope with the information there I can do the wire parametering stuff myself.

Now that I'm thinking, how they did the BB-8 in Starwars? Not the mechanism, just the rig.