zacleck
08-22-2011, 04:07 PM
Hello all. I'm using Max 2011 to build a rig for a rail car and I thought I'd start a thread about it in hopes that I can get some ideas, I've never rigged a vehicle before, only characters. The cart looks like this;
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g195/leckleck/0821_Conductor.jpg
I did a search through the forums here and all I could really find were how to make realistic car rigs that are mostly automated and whatnot, and that's not really what I'm looking for. I'm expecting to need a lot more mobility out of this cart as I plan to treat it like a character. It wont be a talking car per say, but I was thinking it could move around like Roger Rabbit's car.
If I were working in Maya I'd throw a lattice on there and cluster come points to control objects, but as far as I know Max doesn't have that capability. I always kind of wished Max would allow you to wire off points of an FFD box to control objects, but no such luck. Either way I wanted the cart to squash and twist and tilt so I can hit the poses I want. The only solution I had for this was a system of stretchy bones that linked into a chain along the bottom, treating that as a spine. Any other ideas out there?
Another thing I wanted to have this rig be capable of is to automate the wheels spinning, but still have some control over that. I feel like this is going to have to be a more advanced set up to get everything out of the rig that I'm imagining. In the animation it'll be running along a train track, so for the wide shots I thought I could just constrain it to a path and simply wire the rotation of the wheels to the percentage of the path. But that seems like it'd take a lot of trial and error to get the rotation just right, plus that parameter would change based on the path it's constrained to and that would change based on the shot, I was hoping for a more universal set up. Doing it that way might also interfere with some of the other things I'd like to see go on.
I also wanted the wheels to squash or stretch, in a Sonic the Hedgehog sort of way, when it's revving up to go real fast or trying to stop quick. It might be nice to have some of that squashing be automated as well, so that if I were to drop the cart low to the track, the wheels would squash with it, and if I were to raise the cart up past a certain point the wheels would stretch out. The wheels are made of metal and I wouldn't want them to read too rubbery, but I would like some flexibility out of them so I can hit some of the more extreme poses that I want. I thought I could just use Reaction Manager to connect some modifiers, but I'm not sure how that would work with the wheels spinning
In general I'm not really sure what the best way to approach all this is. I assume it'll take a lot of trial and error, but I was hoping I could get some input from some of you out there to help steer me in the right direction.
Thanks,
Zac.
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g195/leckleck/0821_Conductor.jpg
I did a search through the forums here and all I could really find were how to make realistic car rigs that are mostly automated and whatnot, and that's not really what I'm looking for. I'm expecting to need a lot more mobility out of this cart as I plan to treat it like a character. It wont be a talking car per say, but I was thinking it could move around like Roger Rabbit's car.
If I were working in Maya I'd throw a lattice on there and cluster come points to control objects, but as far as I know Max doesn't have that capability. I always kind of wished Max would allow you to wire off points of an FFD box to control objects, but no such luck. Either way I wanted the cart to squash and twist and tilt so I can hit the poses I want. The only solution I had for this was a system of stretchy bones that linked into a chain along the bottom, treating that as a spine. Any other ideas out there?
Another thing I wanted to have this rig be capable of is to automate the wheels spinning, but still have some control over that. I feel like this is going to have to be a more advanced set up to get everything out of the rig that I'm imagining. In the animation it'll be running along a train track, so for the wide shots I thought I could just constrain it to a path and simply wire the rotation of the wheels to the percentage of the path. But that seems like it'd take a lot of trial and error to get the rotation just right, plus that parameter would change based on the path it's constrained to and that would change based on the shot, I was hoping for a more universal set up. Doing it that way might also interfere with some of the other things I'd like to see go on.
I also wanted the wheels to squash or stretch, in a Sonic the Hedgehog sort of way, when it's revving up to go real fast or trying to stop quick. It might be nice to have some of that squashing be automated as well, so that if I were to drop the cart low to the track, the wheels would squash with it, and if I were to raise the cart up past a certain point the wheels would stretch out. The wheels are made of metal and I wouldn't want them to read too rubbery, but I would like some flexibility out of them so I can hit some of the more extreme poses that I want. I thought I could just use Reaction Manager to connect some modifiers, but I'm not sure how that would work with the wheels spinning
In general I'm not really sure what the best way to approach all this is. I assume it'll take a lot of trial and error, but I was hoping I could get some input from some of you out there to help steer me in the right direction.
Thanks,
Zac.