Independant Object Animations

[Chris330]

Dear All,

I am presently working on the design of a large entertainment venue which will have complex and intricate light displays which I will be programming when I have completed the addons required.

As I'm sure many of you will be completely unaware I have released some addons before. Namely the CHRSA80 (released under my own name) and the LAW-80 which was released as part of the P:UKF pack, so I am not a newcomer when it comes to addon making and I am convinced this can really be done.

Ideally I am looking for someone/anyone with animation experience who could answer the following questions if you would be so kind:

1. The most difficult addon to make will be a circular frame with theatre lights mounted on it. What I wish to know is that if I create the theatre lights and the circular frame as one addon/object can I still animate the theatre lights independantly of each other.

2. Can I interrupt animations part way through their completion.

3. Does a rotation animation have to be entirely completed each time it is initiated or can I choose the angle at which I wish to stop the animation. For example if when building the addon I have allowed for 90 degrees of rotation, can I instruct the rotating object to rotate through say only 45 degrees.

The next questions I have are concerning light sources.

1. If I am able to create the circular frame and theatre lights as one entire addon can I attach a light source to each theatre light or am I limited to only one per addon (I would imagine not given that cars and trucks all have two headlights).

2. Can I change the colour of a light source, as I have seen only white lights used in the game.

3. Is the surface area of a light source editable.

I appreciate that's alot of questions but I need to get all my answers sorted out before I start building this. For example if it turns out I cannot create the theatre lights and the frame as one addon then I will need to make plans for a script which will hard code the positions of theatre lights with respect to the frame when operating at high speeds. I've done stuff like this before for my pitching camera script.

I'll build an AutoCAD drawing of my proposed design and post it up later tonight or this week for you to have a look at. Should make things a bit clearer.

Once over the initial hurdles this should go quite quickly once it has started.

Thanks in advance for the help