Morpher and animating.

Animating my light saber.

Firstly I selected auto-key, then I went onto key filters and made sure that ‘all’ was selected.

I then wanted everything to be off at 0 frames, so I went into my omni light which projects a green light from the light saber, and set the multipler to 0.
I then moved forward 10 frames and changed it back to 1.

I then had to animate the light saber itself, to do this I used the same technique as turning the light on and off, I turned on auto key and went back to frame one, I then used vertex selection under editable poly and selected the very end of the light saber, this allowed me to then move the whole sword type and pull it down within the handle.  I then went to frame 10, and just did the opposite, I dragged the end of the light saber back up to its original position.

When the animation is played through, we see the light saber grow and as it grows it also lights up.

I am overall very pleased with animating my lightsaber, it has recreated exactly what happens in the original star wars, I initially set out to try use the morpher tool in the modifier list, although this didn’t work out as planned however it could be used in the future.

Morpher tool.

To use the morpher tool, clone an object for example a square in this case, then manipulate it to how desired, then select the original shape which the user wishes to morph into the manipulated shape, in the modifier list select morpher, then on the right hand side right click one of the empty fields and click select object, then select the maniuplated object.

 

Now when the timeline is moved the original object transforms into the object which was manipulated.