Planning an animation for an IK system
 
 
 

Now that the mechanical arm and cargo box are fully set up for animation it’s a simple matter to pose the arm and set keyframes. Prior to setting any keyframes you should take a few moments to plan the action for the scene.

Planning the action usually involves sketching a simple storyboard, and writing out a brief timeline for the action for each component. In this lesson we’ve provided a simple version for you. The basic premise for the action is as follows:

The table below breaks down the action indicating what action occurs for each object at the specified keyframes.

Frame Mechanical Arm Cargo Box

1

Collapsed position

Initial position

30

Vertically extended position

Initial position

60

Vertically lowered so that cargo magnet is positioned on top of cargo box

Initial position

80

Vertically lifted to extended position with cargo box

Cargo box lifted with mechanical arm

100

SwivelBase rotated along with arm to side

Cargo box repositioned along with mechanical arm

120

Vertically lowered along with cargo box to second position above surface

Cargo box is lowered along with mechanical arm to second position

140

Vertically lifted to extended position

Second position

160

SwivelBase rotated with arm to original position

Second position

180

Collapsed position

Second position

To pose the mechanical arm you select either the ArmControl or SwivelBase nodes and set a keyframe depending on which component you want to pose: