Car Following A Path

[gidsche]

Hey,

...is it possible to animate a car following a path like "for real"....i put my pivot of my motioncontroler in the near of the back axis of the car. But a real car not only follows the path with the pivot at the back axis but also with one at the front axis.

I try to simulate something like "Flow Path Object" but without deforming the Mesh. Maybe someone got a useful technique to achive such a result, thanks and greetz, Michael

[doug-hines]

I too am curious about this.

[joojaa]

allright been while since i did this because for some reason artists hate using cars on paths. Even tough its more natural.

anyway yes you can do this.

First you must understand the path anim node then slae a second path anim node to it at a suitable distanceconnet the frontra axis to the master, pivot around the master and aim at the slave.

While your at it you can pick the right rotation for the wheels form the path curves parameter values

[anthonymcgrath]

skyline vs cosworth

I did this video a coupla years back. The cars in this are all animated on paths. I had my car model built so wheels and the like were separate from the body. The body could rock side to side and back n forth.
The whole car was then grouped... grouped a second time and then a third time!!

this 3rd groupnode was attached to the path which I drew in the top view.

I used the 2nd groupnode to offset the car off the path creating a drifting effect.

to get the car to align to the road I selected the 1st groupnode and constrained that to the normal of the road surface.
I could have gone a little further and constrained each wheel to the road but it was fine for the shots I did so I were happy.

body roll n rock was animated by hand.

[gidsche]

@ Joojaa

Did you mean a motionPath Node?1 Can`t find a path anim node.... didn

[gidsche]

ok, read about your message a couple of times and i Think i understand. But which connection do i have to make to distanceconnect the Front axis and the main part of the car?!and waht about the uValue, when i connect botu uvalues i do not achieve a distance between the both party, or did I?!