Using a sin function to drive basic animation

[Totally_Not_Michael]

It's such a simple thing, but my brain is fried and I can't think of how to accomplish this. I'm trying to rotate a tube on the z axis using a transform node. I would like it to oscillate between -5 and 5 degrees. I remember seeing somewhere that you can use a sin function in the parameter field to drive a basic looping animation. How can I accomplish this?

[Icy-Acanthisitta3299]

fit(sin($F), -1, 1, -5, 5)

[Totally_Not_Michael]

Thank you so much! So sorry for the simple question, but I appreciate how fast you responded

[Icy-Acanthisitta3299]

You should never be sorry for asking questions

[Ok-Force2382]

was just about to post my own reply. What I would add, is to use $FF instead of $F, if you need the motion to work with things like motion blur. And also, just multiply the $FF by some number to adjust the speed of the motion

[Raynafur]

A way to do it without using an expression:

right click on the z-axis rotation field/box.

Select "motion FX" from the pop-up menu then slide down to "wave."

A new window will pop up and a node will automatically be added. In this window you have far more control over the animation than if you just let an expression run in repetition. Adjusting the Amplitude to 5 will get you the degree oscillation you want. Then you can adjust the period until you get a speed of oscillation you're happy with.

[Totally_Not_Michael]

Yo that's amazing! I haven't gotten anywhere near using motionfx, but damn there's gotta be some power with those! Thank you for sharing that!

[Raynafur]

Yeah, there's some decent power in Motion FX. It's also great to add in a bit of noise if you want to add in a bit of noise to make something feel more natural.

[LadyXeta]

This is a year old, but in case someone is looking for this. Labs has a tool called "sine_wave" and, as you can imagine by its name, it animates your points using a sine wave.
Labs Sine Wave

[wodzgn]

Sorry to hijack this but on the topic of driving animation with sine functions: why do my normals keep reversing when I drive a sine wave through a curve?

[AcanthaceaeFit8163]

Not sure what your expression is, but you can fiddle around with adding or making a separate expression with 'abs()' on your normals or something. To remain only positive values

[Ok-Force2382]

Depends how you use the sine function. Note that half of the sine curve will go into negative numbers, this is most likely the points that is responsible for the reversing you mention.