Q:
Can anyone tell me how I can make a gunturret follow a flying object
in the keyframer so that the turret is following the object but stays
on a fixed position.
I tried it with Hiearchy->Link but this way the turret is copying the
path of the flying object.
A:
This sounds almost like Inverse Kinematics. You could try it out if you
have R4.
The second way (a more difficult one) is writing a Keyscript for this -
also R4 needed.
The third way is to animate manually :o( To make it easier, you can
place a spotlight behind the gun, link it to the turret, and use the
spotlight view for checking the right aim for every keyframe of the
flying object... I am sure this would give the animation a more
realistic feeling - no gunturret in the universe can really follow an
object all the time!
Btw MAX has a built-in "Look at" function for this purpose.
Addition:
I tried the first way (IK) and it worked.
The moving targeted object should be the last child in the chain. The turret should be aimed on frame 0 before executing IK. Adjusting right the Joints of the turret parts and using Follow Object does the magic.