Propeller Animation

[OzFlightSimulations]

Hi, just wondering if anyone can help animate the Prop of my modelled aircraft? The tutorials I have found fail to work in FSX. The aileron and rudder seem to animate OK just the prop stays still constantly. I am able to supply the model if anyone is interested in taking a look. Thanks in advance for any help offered.

Kind Regards,
Matt

[Tako_Kichi]

What modelling program are you using as the methodology might be slightly different between the various programs?

It took me a while to fully understand what is required but once it 'clicked' I was off to the races.

Make sure you have all of the following parts (and I am going to assume you have a spinner and prop blades for this example):

Spinner x 3 - one for the 'still' animation, one for the 'slow' animation and one for the 'blurred' animation (the 'slow' and 'blurred' spinner can be mapped to the same texture area).

Prop(s) - these are used for the 'still' animation although 'still' is a misnomer as they still need to be animated and will rotate in the sim during start-up and shut-down.

Prop discs x 4 - convex discs, two of which face forwards and two backwards with one pair used in the 'slow' animation and the other pair in the 'blurred' animation. They also need to be mapped to their own texture sheet which has the blurred prop shape in the alpha channel.

Normally the parent/child relationship has the spinner as the parent with the other parts linked to it so you just animate the spinner and the other parts go along for the ride. Like this:

Parent - Child
Spinner still
- prop (all of the blades required)
Spinner slow
- slow prop front
- slow prop back
Spinner blurred
- blurred prop front
- blurred prop back

Once you have all the above you just need to animate each spinner through 360° (with key-frames every 90°) and assign the correct animation tag to it in the animation manager.

Hope that helps.

[N2056]

Each "state" also needs to have a visibility assigned to it.

[Tako_Kichi]

Each "state" also needs to have a visibility assigned to it.

Whoops! I forgot that bit!

[OzFlightSimulations]

Thanks for your help. However bits of it have gone over my head......

Im using GMAX. Here, I will attach the Gmax file...
SierraFuselageV6.3.1.rar


Dont know if you'll do any good with it, nor if its up to standards but thats what ive got so far.

Matt.

[Dev One]

I do it slightly differently for my models in Gmax. Take for example my Miles M3A Falcon that has a wooden two blade prop, with brass leading edge.
First I make the static prop blade - just one blade, then mirror that. This is the 'Prop_still'
2nd, make a copy of the complete prop & rotate it about 30° - this becomes the 'Prop_slow'
3rd make the disc for the 'Prop_blurred' - this consists of a front face that is usually flat, then the aft face that is slightly conical from the tip to about 30% dia where the broadest part of the blade is, then its flat.
I do not bother to animate the spinner - unless of course the aircraft is going to have a fancy paint scheme!
The static & slow blades are solidly mapped for texture, but the blurred discs are mapped and given a 20% transparency value.
I find that this method works for FS9 as well as FSX. Dont forget to make a _t.bmp as well as a _L.bmp for the prop blurred otherwise at night it will show as solid! As for the Alpha channel, that depends upon the paint scheme - if its matt black on the back face, then none, if its polished Alu, then yes as much as you need.
You will notice though that my models do not have the blurred blade as seen in analogue videos, as one eye does not see props that way...Digital videos of props are totally different & nowhere near real live life!!
HTH
& good luck,
Keith

[hairyspin]

I do it slightly differently for my models in Gmax...

ZOOOOSSHHHHHHHH! That was the sound of another post going over Matt's head at Mach 2.5, lol.

I looked at your model and have a couple of observations. Although the rudder is tagged with the FSX Animation Manager, it isn't actually animated. Also you have named the fuselage as prop: you could call it anything you like and FSX exporter won't care a hoot - thingummabob, theSpanishInquisition (nobody expects theSpanishInquisition...) - but it would make life easier for you to call it fuselage.

I detached the propellor blades from the spinner cone, named the spinner prop_still and the propeller blades blades_still. I've used the model to do an animation example, you'll find it in the sticky Animation & Key Frames: FSX/P3D

I hope this helps.