How to create a movement of rotating gears

Report · Jul 06, 2020

I want to draw and animate something like the picture below.

It is a set of 2 identical size gears.

One of the gears has a drive shaft and the other gear is basically lose inside the gear housing. As the gear witht he drive shaft turns, it also turns the other gear and it suctions fluid from the bottom.

I already know how to animate the fluid OK.

But what would be the best way to animate a set of gears rotating like this?

Report · Jul 06, 2020

You have two basic approaches that come to mind. You can use stop frame animation - basically draw each of a series of positions and animate between them (using the Cycle Layers behavior). Low tech, but can be used to animate anything!

The other approach is to create a puppet (either one with both cogs, or one per cog) and put a Transform behavior on the cog layer. You then use key framing to change the rotation value over time. You start and stop both rotating at exactly the same time that way. That is, one is not pushing the other - it just looks like it because you timed the animation carefully to achieve the look you are after.

The advantage of the second approach is it gives you more control over the speed they cogs are rotating at. Cycle layers has the speed controlled by fps and the number of frames you draw, so is less flexible. Using rotate you can pick any speed you like.

Report · Jul 06, 2020

Thanks..

I will try..

Question: Do you think this could work with a rotation behavior on the gear with collision behavior?

This is another animation I need to do when I get some time... surely something to explore.

This video here made me think about the gears rotating with collision.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-7uTIfXW8E

Report · Jul 06, 2020

You can give collision a try! I am just sharing what I know, which is not everything! lol!

My personal experience with collision is it is not very precise. So something like your cogs where it looks like you want them to fit together nicely my *guess* is wont work like what you want. But feel free to prove me wrong! ;-).