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fester
10-07-2004, 05:24 PM
Hi there everyone. I'm working on a scene for a corporate presentation in which I need to have a conveyor belt move a box along, stop, and then start up again. I want the rollers between the two belts to appear as they are moving the belt along. I also want to be able to see the end of the conveyor belt where it loop back around - going the other way - hence making it a continuous belt.

what's the best way to approach this? Should I model the belt as a straight object, and then "fold over (to make the bottom belt) using bones? I think I can figure out the roller issue using expressions, but I really unsure about making this belt top and bottom move realistically.

Some experienced help would be very appreciated.
Qexit
10-07-2004, 06:03 PM
Hi fester,

Have a look at this Tank Tread Tutorial over on CGFocus :

http://www.cgfocus.com/ArticleDetails.cfm?ArticleID=118

You should be to use or adapt the technique demonstrated to produce a conveyer belt.
uncon
10-07-2004, 08:17 PM
The conveyer surface could be as simple as animating a texture across it, with a null reference or something. You may want to get more complicated so I can't help you much more untill I have a better idea as to the amount of detail you plan on building into this. Post a few pics of what you have so far.
Padmus
10-07-2004, 09:13 PM
the best way i've found to do this works if it has distinguishable segments then what you do is create a morph of it moving one segment and and then make that repeat again and again using expressions the expression i used was V=X-[X] not sure what i had to translate that into for lightwave but you get the idea.
fester
10-07-2004, 10:19 PM
Hey, thanks so much for that link. I'll give it a try.
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