Animation heads! question re. manual keyframing.

[super gnu]

ive got a can which morphs into different shapes.

client has requested that it rocks around a bit reacting to the forces that are deforming it.

i imagine i could do a dynamic simulation, and poke it with a hidden object, but maybe hand animating it will be easier to art-direct.

however rotating an object which pivots on one edge first, then the other, has me stumped. do i animate the pivot while i animate the can, so it rotates around the correct point each time, or is there another method?


hopefully somebody has some suggestions.. the "off-topic" forum seems dead these days. might have to find a general 3d forum.. in the past you could get almost any question answered here :/

[Ihno]

You can use dummy's and the Link Constraint controller on the can (or a root dummy you define for it). You can snap a new dummy to a vertex every time you want the pivot so change and pick it as new root in the Link Constraint.
But honestly, I think it will be much work and in the end you'll get something which is still not easy to art-direct afterwards.
I think you'd better use Mass fx or something to sim it, get the most out of it and bake it. Then stack another animation layer on top using the list controller and do your changes there. You can even stack multiple sims and blend between those if you want.