- [Instructor] Another method
to better fine-tune the movement of an animation
is to actually use mates, themselves.
So, if I take a look at my motion manager, here,
take a look at the assembly tree,
and it will show me all my components, there.
And down at the bottom, it will also show me
a folder of all the mates within this assembly.
So, if I expand that, I can take a look at
all the mates used to constrain my whole assembly, here.
Down at the bottom, I have a distance mate.
So this distance mate is essentially
setting a distance between my two faces, here.
So, again, I'm looking to move
or close my vice component, here.
Essentially, what I'd be doing
is changing the distance between these two faces.
When it's fully open, let's say,
the distance between those two faces would be zero
and if I wanted to open it 20 millimeters, per say,
the distance mate, then, would be
20 millimeters between those two faces.
Very commonly, distance mates
and angle mates can be used within animations
to, again, help fine-tune your animation positions.
So, let's take a look at this.
So, let's say at zero seconds,
my distance mate will be as is, zero millimeters.
I'm now gonna move ahead to, let's say, two seconds, here,
and then at two seconds, I wanna change this distance mate
to open slightly, say 20 millimeters.
Okay, just right click on it and I have
the option to edit the dimension.
Click edit dimension, there, and notice here,
currently, it's zero millimeters.
So, that means the distance between
those two faces is zero or they're flush against each other.
But if I said 20, now, and just hit the green check.
Notice, now, it should have made a change
between those two key points for my distance mate, there,
and if I calculate through this,
as we can see, it's moving, it's changing
my distance mate from zero millimeters
distance between the two faces at zero seconds.
Then it's moving, or essentially, opening, 20 millimeters.
So, I can continue through this process.
Maybe I'll move my time bar from two to four seconds, here.
From two to four, I'll hold, let's say.
I'm just gonna click on the distance,
not edit it, leave it at 20 millimeters,
and just place another key.
So, now, from two to four seconds,
I should just be kind of waiting.
There we go and then after four seconds,
maybe from four to six seconds,
I'm gonna open slightly further.
So, I'll move my time bar to about six seconds, there.
Again, change my distance mate.
So, right click here, say edit dimension,
and maybe I want this now to open another 20 millimeters.
So, the total distance would be 40 millimeters, there.
Hit the green check and calculate through.
So, it should now open to full 40,
so if I play that from the start, now.
It should open about 20 millimeters,
stop for two seconds, and open another 20 millimeters.
Finally, maybe six to eight seconds,
again, I'll hold for a while,
so I'll go from six to eight seconds, here.
Jump down to my distance mate
because that's what I'm changing, here,
and just set that key without making any changes,
and here you can see my change bars coming in
where a change is occurring, and blank
where a change is not occurring.
Then, finally, maybe from eight
to 10 seconds, I'll just move
my time bar to about 10 seconds, here.
I'm gonna close all the way back to zero millimeters.
Again, right click on my distance mate,
edit dimension, and throw in back to zero millimeters.
Again, I can calculate that, as well.
And now I can try playing from the beginning
but we should see what we expect, here.
It's gonna open about 20 millimeters,
then pause, then open another
20 millimeters, then pause, and then
close all the way back to zero.
So, again, using the mates like this,
you just have much finer control,
as I can give exact values, rather
than just guessing what about
20 millimeters is, give or take,
just by using the click and drag method.
And again, using the angle mate,
it's gonna work in the exact same
manner as using the distance mate.