mtpeak2 Posted April 5, 2009 Posted April 5, 2009 A few years ago I setup a car suspension rig using surface constraints. The tires were driven by expressions with a use of a bones translation (had some issues, but fixed now). As the model moves along a path, the tires will rotate according to speed and direction. The setup consists of a blank driver pose. The bone that spins the tires and the path ease are driven by the driver pose, with expressions in the chor. The steering of the tires are also driven by a second path consraint of a target bone. truck3.mov Quote
NancyGormezano Posted April 5, 2009 Posted April 5, 2009 terrific - wonderful project to revive!. Love the camera angle as well Quote
John Bigboote Posted April 5, 2009 Posted April 5, 2009 I remember this...glad to see it back on your plate! Quote
itsjustme Posted April 5, 2009 Posted April 5, 2009 Very cool, Mark! The working drive shaft is a nice touch. Fantastic, as usual. Quote
mtpeak2 Posted April 5, 2009 Author Posted April 5, 2009 Thanks. If you remember, I had issues with u-turns (tires stopped rotating), that problem is fixed with the added driver pose. Quote
steve392 Posted April 5, 2009 Posted April 5, 2009 I remember this ,I thought it was good then but better now Quote
mtpeak2 Posted April 5, 2009 Author Posted April 5, 2009 Here's another render. I want to see if I can setup the truck model to be controlled by a remote control model using expressions. truck4.mov Quote
heyvern Posted April 5, 2009 Posted April 5, 2009 You're almost as crazy as I am! At least your rig looks ten times better. I remember this rig. In fact I was thinking about this rig the whole time I was building my Newton car. I would LOVE to "rig" your "rig" to Newton. Imagine it bouncing over rough terrain, the wheels and suspension springing and bouncing, reacting to real physics and weight as it hits bumps. The suspension compressing as it hits. You could "drive" the rig with key frames while it bounces and steers... the mind boggles. Wasn't there some use of this in HA:MR at one point? I can't see for sure in the animation but is there any "flattening" of the tires in contact with the surface? I wonder if a series of bones could be constrained with an expression to "squish" up based on the closeness to the surface constraint. Maybe a distortion box? I think I asked this question the last time as well. This stuff is inspiring. -vern Quote
mtpeak2 Posted April 5, 2009 Author Posted April 5, 2009 Thanks guys. Vern, your "newton car" is why I revived the project. I was thinking the same thing, setting it up with your newton rig. No, I didn't setup a HA:MR project. If I can get an expression remote working for it, then it would be an ideal HA:MR project. No squish to the tires. Right now there's not enough geometry for it, though the setup shouldn't be too hard to do. Quote
heyvern Posted April 5, 2009 Posted April 5, 2009 I see it working very similar to the rag doll physics rig. It wouldn't be a "perfect" match but it would be "close enough". The problem is no absolute angle limits on newton chains for the wheels in the newton "proxy". But if you got close enough the added physics would create the illusion and your cool rig would handle the rest. The powered newton object could drive the car using a translate and orient constraint. You make the weight a bit top heavy and the car will sway back and forth as it rolls over the terrain while the suspension rig keeps the wheels grounded. ---------- I would love to jump that truck off a ramp! This could be a whole new episode of Change Your Pants! I can see Thom driving wearing a helmet. A huge crowd in a stadium. Backseat POV shows Thom in the driver seat as he turns and gives a thumbs up. Cut to a front seat POV Rabbit and Shaggy in the back seat hugging each other scared out of their minds. Thom speeds towards the ramp. Between the ramps are a bunch of trolls or tanks with sharks... or maybe a couple of Balrogs. The truck hits the ramp and flies majestically over certain death. Cuts to different camera angles some in slow motion. Slow motion shot of inside the truck with Rabbit and Shaggy screaming and holding each other as the bounce around. A cool shot from the trolls POV on the ground between the ramps looking up at the car shows off your incredible rig with the drive chain and wheels working together. It lands on the other ramp bouncing and shaking and skids to a stop. Rabbit and Shaggy stumble out of the back doors. Thom gets out and gives a big thumbs up to the cheering crowd as Shaggy falls to his knees and vomits behind the truck. Fade to black. Roll credits. -vern Quote
mtpeak2 Posted April 6, 2009 Author Posted April 6, 2009 Possible pass the ball entry? pass.mov Quote
TheSpleen Posted April 6, 2009 Posted April 6, 2009 Possible pass the ball entry? Oh Yeah! put that in Pass the ball! Quote
heyvern Posted April 6, 2009 Posted April 6, 2009 Possible pass the ball entry? That's BRILLIANT for pass the ball! I love it! You should definately render that one. Make it a huge plexiglass sphere with some scratches on the surface and some... uh... my hyper-reality syndrome is acting up again.. -vern Quote
mtpeak2 Posted April 7, 2009 Author Posted April 7, 2009 Thanks guys. Sorry Vern, no plexiglass, how about this. truck5.mov Quote
heyvern Posted April 7, 2009 Posted April 7, 2009 Thanks guys. Sorry Vern, no plexiglass, how about this. Oh that works just fine! I like it. -vern Quote
kwhitaker Posted April 7, 2009 Posted April 7, 2009 A few years ago I setup a car suspension rig using surface constraints. The tires were driven by expressions with a use of a bones translation (had some issues, but fixed now). As the model moves along a path, the tires will rotate according to speed and direction. The setup consists of a blank driver pose. The bone that spins the tires and the path ease are driven by the driver pose, with expressions in the chor. The steering of the tires are also driven by a second path consraint of a target bone. nice... cool wheels and nice suspension.love the way the wheels go round. are ya making the whole car, because It would be a sweet looking ride Mark Quote
kwhitaker Posted April 7, 2009 Posted April 7, 2009 Possible pass the ball entry? Oh yeah .. you should put that in the pass the ball. looks great Mark Quote
Jaff Posted April 7, 2009 Posted April 7, 2009 , Wow, how did you do that?, the truck over that terrain looks terrific men , I realy would like to know how was it done .... Saludos desde México Quote
mtpeak2 Posted April 8, 2009 Author Posted April 8, 2009 Thanks guys. Kat, I didn't model the truck, it's on the extra cd or dvd. Jaff, it's a rig I setup for the truck that uses surface constraints to keep the wheel planted on the ground. Quote
mtpeak2 Posted April 11, 2009 Author Posted April 11, 2009 I've done a little more work on the rig. I've add a path to the truck model itself that can be scaled and shape in the chor. The path constraints are already setup, so this will eleminate setting them up in the chor. I'd like to be able to setup the surface constraints in a pose as well, but I'm not sure if that's going to work. Right now it's fairly easy to setup, scale and form the path, adjust the ease of 2 path constraints using pose sliders and setup the 4 surface constraints in the chor. There's still a few things I'd like to do, try to setup the surface constraints in a pose and add counter expressions to the wheels so the wheels slow down or speed up while turning. I may upgrade the geometry of the suspension and add the rigging for that as well. v15_test.mov Quote
NancyGormezano Posted April 11, 2009 Posted April 11, 2009 That's really absolutely terrific - absolutely great ! Quote
KenH Posted April 12, 2009 Posted April 12, 2009 Real nice work. So, are you saying you could control this in HAMR using keys to move it anywhere over the terrain.....like a game? Quote
mtpeak2 Posted April 12, 2009 Author Posted April 12, 2009 I haven't tried to set that up yet, I don't know if it's even possible. Plus, I never experimented with HA:MR, so I don't know what it's capable of. Quote
kwhitaker Posted April 12, 2009 Posted April 12, 2009 I've done a little more work on the rig. I've add a path to the truck model itself that can be scaled and shape in the chor. The path constraints are already setup, so this will eleminate setting them up in the chor. I'd like to be able to setup the surface constraints in a pose as well, but I'm not sure if that's going to work. Right now it's fairly easy to setup, scale and form the path, adjust the ease of 2 path constraints using pose sliders and setup the 4 surface constraints in the chor. There's still a few things I'd like to do, try to setup the surface constraints in a pose and add counter expressions to the wheels so the wheels slow down or speed up while turning. I may upgrade the geometry of the suspension and add the rigging for that as well. that's so cool, a few more cars and truck, and you' e got you own , car movie l love the action Quote
mtpeak2 Posted April 12, 2009 Author Posted April 12, 2009 Thanks everyone. I was able to setup the surface constraints in a pose, you just have to name the ground plane "ground_surface" (I'll have to test if you can just rename it in the chor or you have to do it at the model level). The only thing is the ground surface model has to be one mesh, I'll have to experiment more with that. I added counter expression for the wheels for turning, but they don't work exactly as I want yet, getting close though. I have one more pose to setup to make this a reusable rig. Rght now you have to edit a pose/expression to set the diameter of the tires for the auto wheel rotation. I can use a pose slider (that would be set once in the user properties) for the wheel diameter and use that as the input value in the expression. Right now all you need to do is, name the ground "ground_surface" drop in chor, drop the truck in the chor and scale (using a pose) and shape the path (using a bone chain). Then set the ease poses at the start and end of chor range. No need to add any constraints or expressions in the chor, it's all done already in the poses. Quote
mtpeak2 Posted April 12, 2009 Author Posted April 12, 2009 Tested 2 instance of the same model in the chor. trucks_2.mov Quote
steve392 Posted April 12, 2009 Posted April 12, 2009 My moneys on the green one ,looks like its working a treat ,nice job Quote
TheSpleen Posted April 12, 2009 Posted April 12, 2009 Yeah green one's got more horsepower for sure. Quote
NancyGormezano Posted April 12, 2009 Posted April 12, 2009 Again I say - That's terrific! Makes me smile. I hate cars. Well, hate is such a strong word...more like I find them uninteresting in real life. Soooo - for me to be excited about some dumb ol' trucks tearing up the landscape - is a measure of how REALLY terrific this looks. AND it sounds like you're coming up with a very useful, elegant, reusable scheme. Well done! Quote
heyvern Posted April 13, 2009 Posted April 13, 2009 This is so cool. It's almost as good as my nephews' remote control helicopters I played with over christmas. -vern Quote
Paul Forwood Posted April 13, 2009 Posted April 13, 2009 That looks really good, Mark! Nice suspension! Quote
mtpeak2 Posted April 13, 2009 Author Posted April 13, 2009 Thanks guys. Vern, they remind me of R/C trucks. Quote
*A:M User* Shelton Posted June 9, 2009 *A:M User* Posted June 9, 2009 Mark Do you setup info to rig an auto? Steve Quote
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