Not getting a circular motion path even after updating unless I make cyclic on extrapolation mode!

posted to: Looping Ball

Is it normal to have to make extrapolatio mode -make cyclic on a circular motion path before it will make it a nice round circle?  Even after I updated to the round numbers  2,0 0,2 etc for all 5 of  the x , z values and updated I still have a onion looking path.

  • Wayne Dixon replied

    You need to pay attention to the handles at the start and the the end.

    I dare say that your x curve is slowing down and speeding up at the start/end because that is what the automatic handles are supposed to do.  They smooth the animation from the keyframe before/after it.  However, if there is no keyframe before or after and that curve cuts off halfway through the sine wave shape, it will flatten out.

    If that is what you are talking about, one way to fix this is to add a cycle modifier so it knows to keep it smooth.

    Or by manually rotating the handles to control the tangent of the curve at the start and end.


    Hope that makes sense, Curtis.


  • curtisdd1 replied

    Thanks Wayne!  I see what you're saying & was able to fix it w/o using the extrapolate - cycle function by your 2nd option  -with using the handles at the start and end. 

  • arunoda replied

    Thanks. You sane my day.

  • arunoda replied

    Hey Wayne,

    I just follow through the video & got this issue.

    I think it's better to add this to the description. I think something has changed with the recent version of Blender.

    I either have to use the cycles modifier of extrapolation mode. (I assume both are the same in this context)

  • legends2k replied

    @waylow Thanks for the trick on adjusting the key handles!  It worked :)

    Basically the Y-location curve was alright but I'd to rotate X-location-curve's first and last keyframes to match the curve resulting from applying Cycles modifier.  Now I know two ways of doing it, thanks!