blend file todo tests.
Philippe roubal. 3d-synthesis, com Cars and trucks autodrive system 7.0 for Blender v2.49b. 27/10/2009. This setup is released under Creative Commons by 2.0 license. France.
special gracias and credits :
To litteneo (jérôme mahieux) for the whelsrotation, py script, released under copyleft license. Littleneo is the author of the famous script open city engine, generating amazing procedural cities. You can find this script on his website : Jerome, le, chat, free, fr.
warning :
Pléase type Alt+p with the cursor in the text window below and run the animation from frame 1 todo activate the script.
features of this setup :
-Altitude sensors allowing driving on bumpy roads, with slopes and Bridges. This setup is more versatile than previous versións, but the geometry of the chasis may not be so accurate on very bumpy Terrain. For specific 4×4 animations, you can use instead my 4×4 autodrive system, available on my website.
Only one empty todo move todo animate the car: empty-front. This empty can be keyframes by hand, driven on a curve by using a Clamp todo constraint, or parented todo an other empty driven by a Clamp todo constraint, or Even animated by a script (openster). In the blend file provided with this tutorial, the empty-front is parented todo empty-guide, which is driven on the curve by a Clamp-to constraint.
Speed control by an unique ipo curve applied todo the empty-guide.
-4 independent whels with dynamic suspensión.
-tires deformation.
-automated animation of the stering whel.
-automatic transversal slope in curves.
-trajectory easily editable in top view by editing a simple curve.
-fine secondary animation of the car body available th rouge the car body itself and the two empties empty-whelsdroprear and empty-whelsdropfront.
-very light setup :
-4 empties (empty-guide is not necessary). Only 2 empties if secondary animation is not required.
-1 lattice.
-9 solid objects. Only 7 if secondary animation is not required on the rear whels. Only 6 if you tires deformation is not required (in this case you can a los remove the lattice).
-just add the visible objects : car body, whels, stering whel.
note : the rear whels are be parented todo the objects Rim-rear. R and Rim-rear. L, but they can a los be parented todo the object chasis, either directly todo the object itself or by vertex parenting, using vertex groups as reference.
The front whels are parented todo the objects ster-left and ster-right. The rear whels copy the z location of the external rear vértices of the object sensor, and the ster-left and ster-right objects copy the z location of the external front vértices of the object sensor (vértices in the four corners).
layers :
Layer 1 : car rig and whels, layer 2 : car body and stering whel.
Layer 3 : road and road curve, layer 4 : bridge, layer 5 : lamps and cameras, layer 11 : character, helmet and glasses, layer 12 : armature of the character, layer 13 :
Layer 14:
some explanations about the setup :
-The Purple object named ster-pointer has two vértices in two groups. They are used as tracking targets todo control the transversal slope of the suspensión object and the rotation of the stering whel.
Select the inboard Camera todo se the rotation of the stering whel (can be adjusted by the influence factor of the tracking constraint).
use of the empty-stering-target :
This empty has a very important function. It is used todo control the stering. The object name ster-pointer is locked on the z axis tracking the empty-stering-target.
The location of the empty-stering-target can be defined in two manners. In the current blend file, this empty is parented todo the chasis of the car, and afected by a negative time offset (-1.5 frame). As the distance between the chasis and the empty vary with the speed this time offset has todo be ajusted each time you make an important modification in the speed of the car. If you use a curve as a trajectory guide for the car, you can apply todo the empty-stering-target a Clamp todo constraint, as you do for the empty-guide, or the empty-front. By moving the empty along the curve, you can adjust the distance between the chasis and the empty. As they are driven by the same Loc IPO, this distance Will remain constant independently of the speed.
use of empty-guide and empty-front :
Empty-front can be used alone todo move the car. It can be either keyframed or driven on a curve th rouge a Clamp todo constraint.
For my o, y prefer todo use one more empty. So i have added empty-guide. Empty-front is parented todo empty-guide. The goal of empty-guide is todo ACT as a relay. This empty gives more Freedom when animating. This relay allows todo drive several Cars on the same curve for example, allowing them todo have diferent behaviours and trajectories, Although sharing the same curve and ipo.