parameter based modeling

[Anonymous]

for a class i am taking at my college my professor (who knows very little about max) would like me to explore parameter based modeling... ie. cause and effect. "do this and it makes that happen." for instance if the sun moves across the sky the shades automatically adjust to block the sun. it can be anything really i just need to set up a cause and effect situation. i am looking for both ideas and how to make this happen. maybe even the sun shines on this object and casts a shadow, then something is extruded from that shadow. the sun moves casts a different shadow and then something new is extruded form that shadow.

[Anonymous]

ok so this is where i am :

i have a custom attribute that controls the rotation of a plane that only rotates i radian (3.14159265) and that works great i can rotate the plane using that attribute to rotate the plane. now i want to wire that attribute to the distance from a point... so i go into track view assign a float expression and set up a length(planePos-pointPos)/range situation. and try to link the rotate attribute to the distance attribute and it seems to let me do that but when i move the point around the distance updates but the plane does not rotate. what am i doing wrong?

[Anonymous]

You need to wire the distance to the range.

Watch the video, I fixed the link (sorry about that, it was late 🙂 ).

Dave

[Anonymous]

yea i have the distance and the range wired together. then i try to wire the distance to rotate so that the distance drives the rotation and nothing happens.

[Anonymous]

hmmmmm. Here is my file. if you post yours i'll take a look at it. This file is in Max 2008. Let me know if you can't open it. If not i can make it for you in Max 9 (or download the 2009 Demo, sweet features)

Hope this helps,

7360_5vLNnJij1SB4UZ7fZtcB.zip

[Anonymous]

here is my file..... i tryed wiring distance to both the rotate parameter that i created and to the rotation of the object. i cant get it to rotate either way when i move the point.

7364_zr6nLqQnjBcujK0FJVK0.zip

[Anonymous]

ok i seem to have got it to work, however when the point moves on past the flipped tile the tile begins to flip back. is there a way to get it to stay after the point moves past?

7374_AY5MO7JB1zG8Ji9Z53Ji.zip

[Anonymous]

You need to use the limit function
min(length(var1 - var2)/range,1)

Also not sure if you watched this video
http://designreform.net/2008/02/21/circle-pattern-wire-parameters/
But at the 7 min mark i use the min function.

Dave

[Anonymous]

i have the min function in there. it rotates to 180 and stops when i move the point in (lets say) the positive x direction but when i move it in the negative x direction the tile rotates down to o the starts back up towards 180 again as soon as the point passes it in the negative x direction. is there a way to get it to stop at 0 and not stop moving towards 180 again? maybe a max function?

7379_4V6yrFD3nQeUnjlt52DX.zip