Setup

Creation type

The Creation type menu lets you choose between the default Joint solve behavior or the ability to activate the Joint behavior at a time other than the start of the solve.

Disable collision

The Disable collision option lets you deactivate the collision effect, so that you can control whether the Rigid body objects strike or interpenetrate (pass through) each other. When you activate this option, the Rigid body objects affected by the solve collide and react with each other.

When you disable the Disable Collision option, the Rigid Body object reaction to the Joint solve is not affected if it collides with another Rigid body object. This ability to disable the collision behavior of the solve is useful when you want joint behavior from Rigid Body objects but do not want them to collide.

Setup pane properties

The Joint setup properties display along the top of the Joint Setup pane and displays different options for the Joint Properties. The properties options are the Lock option, View menu, Group properties menu, and the Editor button and are described in Property options.

Active

The Active option lets you turn the Joint solve on and off. Joint behavior for the affected object(s) begins when the session is set to Live or when recorded.

You can key and animate this setting to turn the Joint behavior off and on during your animation. See Keyframe (K) and Animate (A) buttons for more information.

Type

The Type menu lets you specify the Joint behavior, for example a hinge motion or to “drive” objects with a motor. See Joint types for descriptions of Joints types and their behaviors.

Friction

The Friction slider lets you set the level of stiffness in the joint action. The Friction setting calculates Friction values that behave according to the amount of force applied to the object.

Force limit

The Force Limit slider lets you set a “breaking point” or threshold where the joint reaches before it stops functioning and breaks apart. For example, a Force limit is useful if you have a character that kicks a door and you want the door to open and then fall over.

The Force limit setting reads the amount of force applied to the joint, and when it goes over a specified threshold, the Joint connection breaks.

Use the individual strength and elasticity settings for each object to override these settings.

Joint object

This is the area where any objects to which you have applied a joint appear, for example, if you drag a Joint asset onto a null, a Null joint setting appears here. Expand the listing to see the Joint-related settings related to this object. See Joint Objects for descriptions of the settings that appear.

You can also drag objects to the asset list, which lets you choose the hierarchy order by order in which you selected the objects. In this example, if you select Spoon first, it becomes the parent, and if you select Orange first, it becomes the parent.

Global strength

Use the Global strength slider to set the amount of resistance, or force required to keep the joint objects connected.

The Global strength slider sets a Strength/Elasticity for all objects associated with the joint.

There is a local override for each of these.

You can key and animate this setting to turn the Strength behavior off and on during your animation. See Keyframe (K) and Animate (A) buttons for more information.

Global Elasticity

Use the Global Elasticity slider to specify how much give or rigidity the joint has in relation to the connected objects. Like a “Bungee” cord, this setting can create a stretch effect.

You can key and animate this setting to turn the Elasticity behavior off and on during your animation. See Keyframe (K) and Animate (A) buttons for more information.