Motion Paths!

Motion paths.

In class we learnt how to animate an object by assigning it a path to follow; this will be very useful in my animation where I will be making the Naboo fighter fly in space.
Firstly to practice, I drew a sphere which I was going to make follow a path, one I had created my sphere I selected ‘Shapes’ in the modifier list, and then chose circle and drew a circle around the sphere, this would be the path in which the sphere would follow, so it would do a full 360 degree movement, it I wanted to I could have uses the ‘line’ and drawn my own freehand path for the sphere to follow.

I then selected the sphere, and went into the ‘Animation’ drop down menu, then from here I selected ‘Contraints’ and then selected ‘Path constraints’ this then gave a dotted line from the sphere indicating that I had to select the path in which I wanted the sphere to follow, I then selected the circle which I previously drew.

This now meant that the sphere would follow the path of the circle, and when I moved the timeline at the bottom the sphere did a full 360 degree circuit of the circle which I drew.

I will definitely benefit this technique, as I will want to animate my naboo spaceship, I will be able to draw it a path by free hand, and then allocate that path for it to follow.
I was very pleased once I learnt this technique, as it deemed quite simple, yet very effective and useful, I am looking forward to putting this into practice with my own animation.