Animating Tank Treads

[WilliamVaughan]

Animating Tank Treads:
Click Here to view (ftp://ftp.newtek.com/multimedia/movies/w3dw/tread.mov)

****Note**** The treads animate smoothly, but the framerate of the capture software shows otherwise. Give the setup a try and you will see how well it truly works.

[Steamthrower]

:I_Love_Ne

Keep 'em coming. We love these.

[zapper1998]

Ok I have been forever trying to get a Conveyor belt animated...

The conveyor belt is I-shaped, with a weighted roller to keep the belt tight.

And the Head roller, and Tail roller are Crowned, I need to get the belt to

Travel, completely around.

And I need a little help, the tank tread is cool, I have been trying to adapt

the setting, I guess I will install Camtasia 3, and make a vid to so what I need

I that would help xplain what I need...


The vids are AWESOME, Please keep them coming...

Have a great Day..

Michael

[Silkrooster]

Very cool. When you mentioned morphs, I thought you were going to use bones. lol.
Silk

[WilliamVaughan]

Very cool. When you mentioned morphs, I thought you were going to use bones. lol.
Silk


You could use bones as well....sooo many options....so little time :D

[othornton]

The morph technique was used to animate my M1 tank for the first draft of my demo reel. It can be found on my website www.OT3D.com in the Demo Reel section. The tank is the last segment for those who want to skip right to it. The thing that surprised me about using this is that a) The Relativity tutorial for assembling a rig to drive the morphs didn't work at all with my morphs and b) when the treads actually roll under the front wheel they actually look like they're wrapping around the wheel and c) even if it doesn't match up completely a spoked wheel that appears to be driving the links goes a long way to adding to the illusion of motion.

-Oliver Thornton

[WilliamVaughan]

Awesome!

[othornton]

Awesome!

Thanks! I'm not sure why the Relativity tutorial didn't work with my morph, I was able to recreate it using Prem's object and morph, just not my own. Shame too, because it allows for the treads to spin at alternate speeds and directions. For example, any time the tank turns in place one tread moves in the opposite direction of the other, which is a very nice touch of realism.

More things I learned through trial and error:
-UV-Map your original tread before cloning, this creates an easy template to add specific details to all treads later.
-This UV-map can also be used to select points on all treads at once if you want to add a weight map later to control a gradient.
-The UV-map will provide each tread with details, but a procedural laying over all of them will help break up the look of clones.
-The links between treads on my tank were created using a second layer of objects created with the same curve used to Rail Clone the first layer of treads. Morphs don't support non-linear movement, but the one tread distance is small enough that the human eye creates the illusion of rotation itself. Gotta love that persistence of vision! These links also have a unifying UV-map that allows for micro-details like bolts on each and every link.
-poly count can go through the roof with a complex tread system. Be judicious with geometry and add no more detail than you will need.

While I really like the result this provides and am secretly developing plans for a chainsaw using the same technique, I would like to say that an animatable Spline Curve track and Instancing for the treads would be far more realistic, much lower memory consumption, and allow for tricks like the upper sections of track sagging when the tank isn't in motion or displacement of the track on uneven terrain. Using the morph technique also requires a very rigid suspension system, which just isn't that versatile for a hero resolution tank model. Take note Lightwave developers!

-Oliver

[WilliamVaughan]

Check out this source file:
http://www.newtek.com/forums/showthread.php?t=77428

it doesnt use a morph to drive it and you'll see that it actually rotates all the way around....I think this could be the start of a cool setup for treads, chainsaw, etc.

[IMI]

Mr. Vaughan,
I assume this is the type of quality one gets at The DAVE School. I live very near Orlando - I work in Orlando, and am wondering if there are any "part time" courses, or if you do seminars?

[WilliamVaughan]

Mr. Vaughan,
I assume this is the type of quality one gets at The DAVE School. I live very near Orlando - I work in Orlando, and am wondering if there are any "part time" courses, or if you do seminars?


It's a one year course. No other options atm.

But I would love for you to swing by the school to say hello. Always cool to chat with another LW artist.

[IMI]

Coolness! I'll do that. Thanks. :)