CGTalk - Car animation short question [?]

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miss sono

07-09-2002, 05:24 PM

Hi folks,

Are there any good tutorials or tips on how to animate a car. I have a low poly model of a VW golf, and i just want to animate it in a simple environment tazzing about (if you've ever seen the advert that Apple did about a year-and-a-half ago for thier optical mouse - UK advert, then you'll know what i mean) so in effect in need to animate the two front wheels for steering (obviously) and all four wheels for notion of speed + movement. I'll also need to animate the bodyshell to simulate the movement/gravity changes in the suspention yeah? --- well i guess i want this to look and feel as realistic as possible, as close to the physics of a moving car as possible, that i would physically + mentally be able to animate within my bedroom :)

if anyone can help, or guide me in the right direction (and BTW, i'm kinda a novice, but a little more advanced than that if you know what i'm saying) then i would be truely grateful.

thanks guys n' girls

xxx miss sono xxx :airguitar

Liquidstudio

07-12-2002, 07:31 AM

Yeah, This would be usefull for me too! I tried using the toy car setup that comes with reactor, but I had no luck with that. I have also tried using a realy complicated bone rig to simulate the car dynamics........the less said about it the better! :hmm: So if anyone knows of a plugin or script please let me know too.:thumbsup:

Volker

07-13-2002, 12:40 AM

It's all how you rig your car. Make one master dummy and link everything to it. Use that dummy to move the car around. Then, you can move the body and wheels indepentantly, and they will still travel together. I would also link the two front wheels to two dummies directly above them. That way you can spin the wheels by rotating them, and then steer them with the dummies. Then link the two dummies to the master dummy. Whala!

~Zach

Ali

07-13-2002, 02:46 AM

reactor does not provide much control

btw try to use springs attached with car base and car upperbody. so upper body will react when it accelerates or stops.

for wheel movements you can use exrpession. this kind of exrpession can be found in old max "features" folders. for getting directions of wheels better way is to use look at controller.

for some extra effects like in real worl sudden ratation of wheels does not move the car same time. use list rotation with exp. and eylerxyz rotations and weigth them which on you want.

for creating real dynamics. do animation of your car copy/do the same animation for dummy reactor car when you want to do dynamics .based on initial velocity set start frame and end frame. then reduce extra keys. use its motion for you car.

watch car racings or car racing movies.

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