This assignment will introduce you to animation hierarchies and forward kinematics. I will not be giving you as explicit instructions as before, so to some extent you will have to figure out how to accomplish these tasks yourself. | 3D Studio MAX tutorials 2000 Aaron F. Ross 10 Forward Kinematics -- The Robot Arm This assignment will introduce you to animation hierarchies and forward kinematics. I will not be giving you as explicit instructions as before so to some extent you will have to figure out how to accomplish these tasks yourself. 1. Reset 3DS MAX and create a short wide box in the center of the world. You will achieve best results if you create the box in the Top viewport and use 3D Snaps snapping to Grid Points only. Right-click on the 3D Snap icon to set the snap type to Grid Points. If your cursor is not a blue crosshatch which always snaps to grid points then Snaps are not really on. You can press the S key to toggle Snaps on and off even if the button is greyed out. This box will serve as a platform for the robot arm so rename it Platform. 2. Create another box in the center of the world this time taller and not as wide or deep as the platform. This will be the base of the robot arm which rotates on top of the platform. Rename this object Base. Move the base up so its bottom is aligned with the top of the platform. You can use 3D Snaps or the Align tool to do this. It is very important that all objects end up centered in the world XY plane. Otherwise you will get unpleasant asymmetrical animation. The easiest way to ensure this alignment is to simply create the boxes in the Top viewport centered on the world origin. 1 3. In the Front viewport create a cylinder at the top of the Base object. The cylinder should be big enough to completely cover the top faces of the Base. This is to ensure that there are no gaps in the model which will be visible when the animation is rendered. Rename the cylinder Shoulder. Move it into position so that it too is centered on the world XY plane. You may notice that its Pivot Point is not at the center of the world XY plane. This doesn t matter because unlike a human shoulder the cylinder will only rotate in one axis and the default Pivot Point .
