Drawing the Path on the Paper

Animating a Pen

Creating the Line Using PathDeform

 

Autodesk 3ds Max Tutorials > Animation Tutorials > Animating a Pen > 

Animating the Pen on the Path

Now that you've drawn the path on the paper, you can animate the pen using a path constraint.

Setup:

1. Continue from before or open write_on_yes.max.
2. Move the time slider to Frame 0, if it isn't there already.

Change material and color:

1. Press M on the keyboard to open the Material Editor, if it isn't open already.
2. Locate the paper material, and click to highlight it.
   Note The paper material should be visible in a sample slot, but you can also find it by clicking Get Material, then browsing from Mtl Editor.
3. Drag the paper material from the sample slot onto the paper object in the viewport.
4. Close the Material Editor.
5. Select by pressing the H key or click on the toolbar.
6. On the Select Objects dialog, select the object named Line01, then click Select.
7. On the Modify panel, in the Name And Color field, click the color swatch, and then change the color of the line from white to black.
8. Click in open space in the viewport to deselect the Line01 object.

   The line is now visible in the viewport.

Animate the pen with path constraints:

1. Press the H key again. In the Select Object dialog, choose the object named nib from the list. At the bottom of this dialog, click Display Subtree. Click Select.

   The components of the pen (the wood, the cork, and the nib) are already linked into a hierarchy for animation. This is indicated by the indented list. The nib is the parent of the hierarchy. When you animate the nib parent object, the cork and the wood child objects will follow.

   The pen nib is now selected in the viewport.

2. On the menu bar, choose Animation > Constraints > Path Constraint.

   As you move your mouse over the viewport, you'll see a dotted line connecting your cursor to the nib.

   

   Constraining the pen to the path

3. Move your cursor to the Line01 object, then click to select that as the path.

   The pen jumps to the start of the path. It is also partly buried in the paper.

   

   Pen jumps to the start of the path.

4. On the toolbar, turn on Rotate Mode. Rotate the pen in the viewport, approximately –30 degrees about X, and 17 degrees about Z, so the pen is not buried in the paper.

   

   Rotate the pen so that it's above the paper.

5. Play the animation. The pen follows the path.

   

   Pen moves along the path.

The next order of business is to create a growing line to follow the end of the pen. To do this, you will use a PathDeform modifier.