Stage 2:

Creating the grasping Claw with Subdivision sufraces

Create a Polygon cube then go into "Subdiv Surfaces" then "Create Subdiv", you will notice that the cube turns into a sphere. Now right click over the sphere and select Polygon Mode from the popup menu, this creates an outline of the original cube shape.


Now right click again over the sphere and select "Faces" then select the top and bottom faces, in the Polygons menu select the Extrude Face


Pull up the Transform Handles in the Z direction then select the scale box above it to put the tool in scale mode, select the centre scale box, this allows you to scale in all directions and slide your mouse to the left shrink it down.

Then keep scaling and moving faces until your happy with your Claw shape.


Then keep scaling and moving faces until your happy with your Claw shape.


The next step is to Group the hammer, then press the Insert key on your keyboard and move the Claw�s Group and the Claw�s pivot points to the base of the hammer where you want it to hinge.


Then duplicate it three times.

The reason you group the hammer is to create a separate Transform Node to attach each hammer to the leading nurbs circle, we will do this now.

Select the group node of the first claw and the last circle in the loft, press F2 to get to the Animation menu set � Animate � Paths � Attach to Path make sure the following parameters are set:

Time Range = Start.

Follow = On.

Front Axis = X.

Up Axis = Z.

World Up Type = Normal.

Inverse Front = On.

Select the Claw then in the Channel Box � Inputs � motionPath1.

Change the

U Value = .3

And Key frame it, then select the Cube1 child object, rotate it to get an open claw look and Keyframe the position (rotate -120 in the X direction).

You might have to move the pivot to the base of the Claw if you missed this step.

Select the last curve and cap it with a Planar surface


Now it�s just a matter of Keyframing the rotation of the Claw.

See final movie