Animating my Crossbow

Using reactor I was able to animate my crossbow in such a way that when the pulling mechanism was pulled back and released, the bolt that was attached to it is propelled forward with increased momentum. The way this was animated was using a combination of auto key and set key on the timeline for separate elements of the crossbow.

Frame 0

 The pulling mechanism was pulled back to the point where it can't stretch the ropes on the crossbow anymore which was set at frame 65/100, so over half of the animation is showing the bolt being pulled backwards and the ropes expanding as they reach their potential.

Frame 65

 Once the bolt is fired, the pulling mechanism moves forward slightly and the bolt is propelled forward at a great speed (the bolt moves away faster as it has been set to drop off at a farther away distance. The curve editor has been used to speed up the rate that it shoots off from the crossbow and to stop it from slowing down too much at the end of the animation). As the bolt moves away from the crossbow, the crossbow itself is jogged backwards by the momentum. This is corrected as the mechanism hits the front of the crossbow and relaxes back in place. The crossbow is moved backwards for a few frames before falling back into its original position. At the same time as this, the wheels are animated the opposite way so that it gives the illusion that the wheels actually move with the movement of the crossbow.

Frame 77

A few frames after this (82/100), the crossbow bolt is no longer able to be seen from this view. This gives an idea of the speed at which the bolt has been shot out of the crossbow at. At a different view, we can see that the bolt still moves away from the crossbow up until frame 99 where it drops onto the grass and frame 100 it stops moving completely as the animation ends.

Frame 100

 

Animation of crossbow being fired