Animating a car...
 

Ok, heres what I got. I have a car modeled, and Ive mad it so that when the car moves, the tires rotate with the car accordingly. I want to make the car do a burnout, then peel out. The tires are grouped with the car body, so that when the car moves, the tired do too. Any one have any idea how I would go about rotating the tires really fast while the car is sitting still, then have the car peel out? Any help is appreciated.

answer = one word - - Mel

Create a function to rotate the tires fast, then have an if - then statement to revert them to normal rotation when the car has reached a certain point . .

how about just keyframing the tire rotation.

or at least having some expression to convert foreward distance traveled by the car into rotation (no hassle keyframing if you have to do a lot of start-stop)

but keyframing would work fine if the car is going kinda the same speed the entire time.

Skywola - I have no idea how to use/create MEL's. I know Visual Basic uses if - then statements, and I know the basics of VB. Is MEL based off VB, or its own language, or what?

Vlad - Id prefer not to keyframe the rotation. I also noticed that the rotate Z field of the tires is oranged/pinked out. Will that throw off the rotation of the tire when the car is moving? Or could I just make it so that once the tires stop spinning as the car is sitting still, make them go back to 0 degrees, and it should pick up normally and rotate, right?

Matt - I already have it so that when the car moves, the tires rotate according to how far the car has traveled. I did it by using Set Driven Keys. I dont have to keyframe anything to get the tires rotating. Im trying to get the tires to rotate when the car is sitting still, without messing up the SDK.

I see.

Oh, and MEL is based off of C++ or Java, but VB would help you learn it (I really can't stand how MEL is formatted, language structure-wise. I much prefer c++)

Think the best thing to do would be to keyframe it at the point its still, like vlad said.

yeah im having the same problem with my part of the animation. I was thinking of keyframing the spinning of the tires and i was just going to keyframe all of the tire movements. Since i plan on having my car skid sideways at a section the sdk wouldnt work...

When you come over next time well test out some stuff. But im gunna go with vlad on this.

Hi

The bestway to do this would be to connect the translation calc to the wheel rotation via some utility nodes.

Use a condition node to allow option of different input/output conditions i.e set ouput to be color true if vehicle tx, tz is changing and output color false to be a fixed or adjustable value which can be set using a custom attriubute via a mulipy/divide node.

Davvey

Davvey, that is exactly what I need to do. I understand what you mean about it, but I have NO idea how to go about doing it. Any help, please? Ive never messed with an utility node before. Thanx :)

Hi
I have attached a maya scene file with a simple vehicle rigged with a set up using utility nodes.

The rig is not completed but if you look in the hypergraph you should see how the nodes have been connected. If you want I can try and knock up a mel script to do something like this, but the translation/rotation has not been fully tested so I am not sure if it works in all directions as required. The sphere acts as a rig controller.

The way to do this is if you have an expression that works print it out and then use utility nodes to mimic the expressions formulas.

The attached file errors when it opens. Did it not upload fully or something? If you want to go ahead and make a MEL script for it, I can play with the translation settings and try to get it working. I just have no idea where to start the whole thing. Thanx for the help. I appreciate it. :)

Hi
This is a version for Maya 5.0 also it has been rigged for suspension control again using utility nodes. Try this version and let me know.

P.S will do mel script to follopw.

Hi

Set of scripts uploaded to site at following location. Please let me know any probs etc.

http://simplymaya.com/download_pages...tid=6&typeid=4