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digital_rhino
03-18-2002, 10:42 PM
i need help animating a tanks tread. There has got to be a relatively easy way to animate the tread around a curve, but i just cant seem to figure it out. If this is the way, please explain it to me, if there is another way, i really need to know. thanks a lot.
NightshadeVFX
03-18-2002, 11:18 PM
1. Create a tank track.
2. Create bones for the tracks ( 1 per track )
3. Parent the bones to the tracks.
5. Create an ik spline for the bones. (May need to create your own curve)

Animate it using the ikhandles offset.

Try an expression like this:

ikhandle1.offset = ( ceil(frame/speed) - (frame/speed) );

Speed is any number you want.

Hope this helps, works like a charm!
SpaceJASE
03-19-2002, 06:57 PM
refresh my mel a bit - what does ceil refer to?
NightshadeVFX
03-19-2002, 08:05 PM
Say you have the number 1.6 its goin to take that number and it rounds it to the nearest whole number. The top number. Which will be 2.0. Or if you haev 1.1 it will round it up to 2.0. If the number is 1 though it stays as 1.

Hope that helps, There is also floor which does the opposite of that. It drops the decimal and would stay as 1.

Basically what we are doing it getting the nearest whole number then subtracting the decimal form to normalize the variable into a 0 to 1.
SpaceJASE
03-20-2002, 05:02 AM
that makes sense.
don't remember covering that in class.
thanks!
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