3D Cube (3x3x3)

[EnSanity]

Hello Fellas (/ladies?) -

Been a member of the flash community for awhile and decided to enter a new world. A few questions i had while surfing around swift 3D trying to make a cube. I have been duplicating one cube (1x1x1) 27 times and trying to line them up with each other. This is extremly hard, let alone tedious. Is there an easier way to do this? Then after i have the cube i want to animate it. Can i on different keyframes have all the 27 cubes accessed as one large cube so its easy to manipulate and tween and then on seperate keyframes, break them apart to animate the 1x1x1 cubes individually? If anyone could take some time and explain any of these aspects to me, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks a bunch

[RUSHVision]

Unfortunately Swift3D doesn't have any alignment tools. Yes, you can feel free to take a moment and say to yourself "hmmm.....wonder why?". It won't do any good, but it seems to be the thing to do at this point. That being said, I can only recommend getting a single cube placed properly then copying and pasting this to create the others. When I say 'properly' I mean that things will work better if you never move the cube using the arrow keys, but rather set it's position on a whole number using the Position page on the Properties Toolbar. Once you determine the right placement by pasting one or two more cubes into the scene and tweaking the settings until you have the gap between them as you like it, you can then proceed to paste the rest of the cubes, adding the difference between the first two cubes using the Position page.

I will do this for all my objects to the right of the Y axis, or to the right of center. To get my objects that are to the left of center, I will select each of the cubes, copy and paste it, then go up to the Position page and simply add a minus sign (-) to the number. This will offset it an equal amount, creating a 'mirrored' object on the other side of the Y axis. I suggest doing this as opposed to grouping several cubes together and copying and pasting them. I know it would go a lot quicker if you did, however, every time you group something wherever it is becomes the new center of the group and it just starts getting confusing when you are trying to keep track of all your cubes by their numerical position.

If you are doing something like a Rubik's Cube, then you may even want to go the extra mile and name each of your cubes according to it's row and position to make it easier to select them using the Hierarchy Panel. Your call on that one, but if you have a cube that is nested behind a bunch of others you will either have to hide the ones in front of it or choose it from the Hierarchy Panel and it's a lot easier to pick things out if aptly named.

Once you have all your cubes laid out you can then select them all and group them into a single unit. Now you can select or animate it as a whole. You can also select any cube and animate it individually by selecting it in the viewport while holding down the Ctrl key or by selecting it in the Hierarchy Panel. When you are animating, it doesn't work quite like the keyframes in Flash work. In Flash you create a keyframe then make changes to the frame...in Swift3D you toggle the Animate button on, place the Current Frame Indicator on the frame where you want your changes to take place, modify your scene, and then Swift3D automatically creates a keyframe for you. You would then adjust the control handles to get additional control over how and when the animation takes place.

[EnSanity]

Awesome post with some great information. Looks like i have quite a bit of practicing to do, however it will have to wait for a few days. Damn the flu. Thanks again -