Translating object using Locators - II

Continuing from last thread, here is another example of the same method translating objects using locators distance.



The creation of the spiral polyPlanes are preety straight forward. I used extruded curves to create the spiral. Then attach the polyPLane into the spiral curve with animation path. Then create the snapshots of the polyPlanes to "duplicate" those polyPlanes along the spiral curve.

I created simple mel to automate the setup of those locators to each polyPlanes. Here is the mel code :

string $tempObj[] = `ls -sl`;
string $ctrlLocs[] = `spaceLocator -n "ctrlLoc"`;
for ($i = 0; $i <>
{
     //Create Locator & set translate xyz into obj cord
     string $locs[] = `spaceLocator -n ("baseLoc_0" + $i)`;
     string $pointCons[] = `pointConstraint -offset 0 0 0 -w 1 $tempObj[$i] $locs[0]`;
     delete $pointCons[0];

     //Create distance node
     string $dist = `createNode distanceBetween`;

     //Connect distance node two locator into distance node
     connectAttr -f ($ctrlLocs[0] + ".translate") ($dist + ".point1");
     connectAttr -f ($locs[0] + ".translate") ($dist + ".point2");

    //Create multiplyDivide, plusMinusAverage, setRange & condition node
    string $mDiv = `createNode multiplyDivide`;
    string $plusMin = `createNode plusMinusAverage`;
    string $range = `createNode setRange`;
    string $cond = `createNode condition`;

    //Connect distance into multi & cond
    connectAttr -f ($dist + ".distance") ($mDiv + ".input1X");
    connectAttr -f ($dist + ".distance") ($cond + ".firstTerm");

    //Set value of multi, range & condition
    setAttr ($mDiv + ".input1Y") 1;
    setAttr ($mDiv + ".input2Y") 1;
    setAttr ($range + ".maxX") 4;
    setAttr ($range + ".oldMaxX") 1;
    setAttr ($cond + ".operation") 4;
    setAttr ($cond + ".secondTerm") 4;
    setAttr ($plusMin + ".operation") 2;
    setAttr ($mDiv + ".input2X") 4;
    setAttr ($mDiv + ".operation") 2;
    setAttr ($cond + ".colorIfFalseR") 0;

    //Connect multi to plusMin
    connectAttr -f ($mDiv + ".outputY") ($plusMin + ".input1D[0]");
    connectAttr -f ($mDiv + ".outputX") ($plusMin + ".input1D[1]");

    //Connect plusMin to range node
    connectAttr -f ($plusMin + ".output1D") ($range + ".valueX");

    //Connect range to cond
    connectAttr -f ($range + ".outValueX") ($cond + ".colorIfTrueR");

    //Connect cond to obj translate Y
    connectAttr -f ($cond + ".outColorR") ($tempObj[$i] + ".ty");
    }