Using reactors in Max 8

[OmegaDragon]

Well, I am trying to make an animation that requires making a propeller rotate in an odd angle, and just normal rotating + auto key usually ends up in a wobbly manner and intersection of parts in the model. Right now, the only reactors I know how to use are cloth, soft body, and a bit about motor. I could try to use motor, but the problem I get is that once it starts spinning it will intersect the main model and it will slowly get out of control causing it to jump around everywhere. Does anyone know of a way to change it to a certain axis for it spin on it and make the propeller more stable without making it wobble and spin out of control? Any other ways of making it spin correctly (perhaps using another reactor)? Also, any one know any good tutorials on how to use different types of reactors? I have searched for tutorials, and the ones I found were basic cloths, motor use and a great tutorial that involved a bell scene(it was very entertaining and informative). Any help will do :D

[Limited]

Use a constraint on the wheel to the main part of the car?

[Tweek]

for the propellor, set the gizmo axis to "local" thay way, you can rotate it easily, around its own axis.
then you can just simply link ot to the bodt, and tadaah, propellor.

it's the drop-down box next to the move/rotate/scale tools
and reactor is easy.

[OmegaDragon]

for the propellor, set the gizmo axis to "local" thay way, you can rotate it easily, around its own axis.
then you can just simply link ot to the bodt, and tadaah, propellor.

it's the drop-down box next to the move/rotate/scale tools
and reactor is easy.

Hmmm never would have noticed that :o Thanks for the tip, the animation looks much better :D

http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/2055/spinnyanewzp2.gif

Now I need to fix the left propeller and make them go at the same time. I can see it intersect the wing.

Actually, if I look directly at the left propeller it just looks like its going
/ | \ | / while if i look at the corner of the picture its turning.

EDIT: Need to spread reputation to give to tweek again D:

[Tweek]

it's the framerate of your gif, it's the same effect of carwheels appearing to turn backwards.

youll either have to increase the framerate of the gif, or make the propellors spin slower or faster.

whatever negates that effect, those are your options.

(if your animations are screwed, you can just select your keyframes and delete em, bam, clean sheet to work on)

[Zeph]

Oh, for realism, you'll want one to spin clockwise and the other counterclockwise.

[OmegaDragon]

Oh, for realism, you'll want one to spin clockwise and the other counterclockwise.

You got a point there >.>

Will work on it.

EDIT: After some experimenting, I managed to get the reactor motors to work and got some great results :D
Not only are they spinning like they are supposed to, they even look like they are synchronized!

End result:
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/8235/spinny44eo0.gif

Thanks guys ;D