HD Instance v2 - offset problem

[Larry_g1s]

I’m trying to have some instances (cars) follow along a curved path (road) but with offsets so the potions of the cars are not so uniform through out the road, and with Frame Scale + & - so the speed of the cars of offset. But I’m having problems with it. My problem is as soon as I start messing with the offsets (either scale or frame), the animation time works how I want them to (meaning they look like they're driving at different speeds), but they are no longer confined within the area of the road (i.e. they're all off the road at times). I think this is due to the fact that the road is curved so I've set the animation of the object to be cloned with appropriate curves. Using a motion file for this type of rigid animation seems to only jump up the render times.

So long story short: How do you get instances to follow a curved path with different speeds? Any tips would be much appreciated.

[steve0077]

Did you start your car & path at 0,0,0 ?

[Larry_g1s]

Yes, but because the path changes with the curve, so do the instances (rightfully so). But because they have different speeds they take the curves sooner or later then the path.

[steve0077]

Did you bake the car animation to a motion file using the hd motion scanner and apply it to the car instance.

[Larry_g1s]

Yeah, but that can run up render times when it's doing the same thing, sense I'm not using in morphs, etc. Basic rigid animation. I'll try and post something either in a scene or a video file of what I'm referring to.

[Larry_g1s]

Okay, I've attached a video of what's happening and what I'm trying to accomplish.

HDI2_question (http://www.genesis1studios.com/HDI2_question.swf)

[steve0077]

If you look at the tutorial on happy digitals web site it shows creating a motion file for the single object and using that motion file to apply to each instance individually instead of all the objects as a group which I think is happening. I would check out the elf tutorial if You haven't yet. It may help.

[Larry_g1s]

If you look at the tutorial on happy digitals web site it shows creating a motion file for the single object and using that motion file to apply to each instance individually instead of all the objects as a group which I think is happening. I would check out the elf tutorial if You haven't yet. It may help.Thanks again steve. :thumbsup: Yeah, I checked out that video, it reminded me of one thing, but like I mentioned Graham said, using a motion file for this type of rigid animation seems to only jump up the render times not fix what I need.