Hotrod

[Pooka]

Hello everyone,
Made this car and some day, when I have time,
I want to animate it.
But it seems to be a quit difficuld job.
Especially the steering since you see the whole mechanism,
Not only the wheels.
How about the suspension?
Do you use expressions for this things, or are there other ways?

[Zafar Iqbal]

Nice model, looks great.

I would do the "rigging" with an IK (perhaps bones assigned to sharp/concetrated/whatever weightmaps) bone setup.

I also think this method would be the most intuitive.

But you'll probably want an expressing to roll the tires as the car moves :D

[astro-sanchez]

hey that's a very nice model

[retinajoy]

Now that is very good. I hope to model something as good as that one of these days. How long did it take you to model and texture it?

[Pooka]

Thanx,

The modeling was done in 4 days.
Texturing a few hours.
But now I'm stuck in the animation part.

[Oracle77]

http://www.newtek.com/products/lightwave/tutorials/animation/copter/index.html
This tutorial helped me understand expressions a lot better, and it might be just what youre looking for!
When he uses different peices, he uses different object, but you could have the same object, just put in a bone with a weight map, make the part you wanna turn 100% of that map, and then check weight map only in layout!
I hope this clears the watter, rather then confuse you more, if you need more help just ask!

[Matt]

only 4 days - way to go! very nice model!

[Pooka]

Originally posted by Oracle77
http://www.newtek.com/products/lightwave/tutorials/animation/copter/index.html
This tutorial helped me understand expressions a lot better, and it might be just what youre looking for!
When he uses different peices, he uses different object, but you could have the same object, just put in a bone with a weight map, make the part you wanna turn 100% of that map, and then check weight map only in layout!
I hope this clears the watter, rather then confuse you more, if you need more help just ask!

Thanx, saw this tutorial before and I think I can use it to make the wheels rotate when you move the car. But the other parts where littlebit too mathematic for me.
I tried to do the steering mechanism just
with parenting and nulls without success...

[js33]

Very nice model. I've been wanting to do a hotrod for awhile now but still haven't. What did you use for reference for all the parts that can't be seen in a pic? That's what always hinders me, not that I counldn't model any piece but, that I can't find references for what the parts look like. Did you use a model kit or something?

Cheers,
JS

[Pooka]

I found a lot of reference material on:
http://www.nationaltbucketalliance.com/gallery/index.asp
and used a lot of different images to build my own custom rod.