Improved car driving rig

[R Reynolds]

I found that I get a slightly more believable driver response if I constrain the chest (at -50%) and skull (at +50%) to the bone that automatically aims the chassis and turns the steering wheel (see image).

And about that null; for the whole rig to work it has to follow the same path as the car's model bone but stay centered between the front wheels. At present the only way I can figure out how do that is to set correctly chosen key frames for the ease of both the car and null. This is trivial if the ease timeline is a straight line from 0 to 100%. But it became trickier if the car changes speed during the chor. Can anyone suggest a way to constrain the null to the path as well as the car and keep a constant path distance between the two?

[robcat2075]

I'm afraid i can't get the movie to play. Can you edit you post so that the file is just a "link" instead of inline?

(I tried editing it with my mod powers and that didnt' work.)

[R Reynolds]

Hmmm. I tried it after posting and had no problems. I it may be a codex problem. When I first started producing clips from PowerDirector using H.265 HEVC, VLC had no problem but when I tried the Windows native media player it gave an error message and a link to the Windows store to buy the new codex for something like $1.25. After the install, it was happy. I'll see what I can do.

[R Reynolds]

I can't supply a link because my password to the Hash server doesn't work anymore and my once-free FTP program seems to have expired. The best I can offer is this inferior quality H.264 AVC.

[robcat2075]

Quote

Can anyone suggest a way to constrain the null to the path as well as the car and keep a constant path distance between the two?

An expression will do that.

(I was able to do it in v15. v19 seems to have a bug I will report.)

(tell me if you can't see this)
 

 

You still have three weeks for your Prehistoric entry!

[Wildsided]

There's some lovely body roll on the go there Roger.

[robcat2075]

Quote

An expression will do that.

Creating the expression will work in v18 without a crash if you want to try it.

 

This PRJ created in v18 will work in v19.

TwoNullTest03.prj

[R Reynolds]

That's wonderful Robert. Since I'm stuck at v19e (unless Steffen can solve the Enhance:AM issue) I'll have to use that v18 workaround forever.

Thanks very much.

[robcat2075]

1 hour ago, R Reynolds said:

Since I'm stuck at v19e

You might test out the expression-making process in v19e. I only tried it in v19j. Maybe it still works in v19e?

[R Reynolds]

This became a good news, bad news, good news story.

I successfully reproduced your example in v19e. GOOD

Used the technique in a car steering project but every time the project was saved, closed and re-opened, the constraint aiming the steering bone roll handle at the null went wacky and needed repairing meaning it couldn't work using Netrender. BAD

Used your technique to properly position a null under the car's front axle, then constrained a second null to translate to and orient like the front axle null, then constrained the roll handle of the steering bone to point at the second null. This always survived the project close and re-open. GOOD

Thanks again for your efforts Robert.

[robcat2075]

Quote

Used the technique in a car steering project but every time the project was saved, closed and re-opened, the constraint aiming the steering bone roll handle at the null went wacky and needed repairing meaning it couldn't work using Netrender. BAD

We should probably try to reproduce that for a bug report.

Steffen has fixed the expressions crash for v19k