cycling animation for escalator

[Barnaby Gunning]

Ok... this is pretty basic but a big gap in my knowledge needs filling...

I am building a department store for animation/rendering. It has escalators.

I want to animate the escalators (at least the treads for now).

At the moment I have split the escalator into its main body and an individual tread. I have created a super simple animation of a first tread which rises correctly up the escalator. I am using the Follower motion modifer to attach the other treads to the first one so they follow a frame behind.

What I want to do is make the first tread follow a looping cycle where it jumps back to the base of the escalator and starts back up again. But I can't make head or tail of the cyclist motion modifier.

Help

[John Fornasar]

Do a search for a "Tank Tread" tutorial, there were a few out there, it'll do the same thing.

Probably easier though, because the bottom of escalator treads aren't visible like a tank, you could make enough steps for the duration of your shot and run them through. At the top where they disappear, you could either have them following a path to level out, or play a trick with a clip map.

[Barnaby Gunning]

Thanks for your suggestion John, lateral thinking... hadn't thought about using morph targets... should be a much cleaner solution than I had anticipated....