Tutorial: Rigging Craft 4-Wheeler Ext. in CINEMA4D

[Carl Buhre]

Start by creating a Craft 4-Wheeler Extended and scale it using the Object tool so that it becomes roughly the same size as your high poly model. Then position it so the bottom of the dummy model is at the same height as the bottom of the high poly model.

Move the dummy wheels so they are directly on top of the high poly wheel. You can use Functions -> Transfer for this.
Note: It's important that the wheels a properly aligned on top of each other. Otherwise you will get an offset that will look strange.

...do this for all four wheels.

Scale the wheel so that it covers the high poly wheel.

...do this for all four wheels.

Position the dummy steering wheel on top of the high poly steering wheel.

Now it's time to make the high poly parts children of the different dummy model parts. As you can see below, I have all my high poly parts, minus the wheels and steering wheel, in a group.

Make the high poly parts (except the wheels and steering wheel) children of _ChassisRelocatorMesh. You do this by dragging them on top of _ChassisRelocatorMesh in the object manager. The hover mouse icon should indicate this with a "down arrow".

Select the high poly part(s) for the steering wheel.

...and make it a child of _SteeringWheelMesh.

Select the high poly part(s) for the front left wheel.

...and make it a child of _WheelMesh_FL

Do the same for the rest of the wheels.

Now create a ground for the vehicle to drive on. I've created a Plane. In order for the Craft Director Studio tools to interact with objects in CINEMA4D, they will have to be made editable. You do this by selecting the Plane and then you can either press 'C' on the keyboard, or use the menu Functions -> Make Editable.

Select _GravityDirectionMesh.

C4D-rig15.gif (11.5 KiB) Viewed 48174 times

...and make it a child of the Plane.

C4D-rig16.gif (11.67 KiB) Viewed 48180 times

Now you're ready to Record. Setup the inputs and then press Record to start the recording.

[Carl Buhre]

Craft Director Studio version 9.3.1 in CINEMA 4D has some problems with Craft 4-Wheeler Extended interacting with ground objects using the default factory settings. In order for the vehicle to behave normally you need to disable "Use Fast Ray Cast" and lower Ray Multiplier from 10 to 1 (unless you have a REALLY powerful machine).

[JohnnyBob]

Wow Carl, You did this for Me bro? I cant thank You enough Dude, I mean that Man. Your the coolest Dude Thank Ya Thank Ya very much I really appreciate it Bro

[JohnnyBob]

I finally see what i did wrong dude, i mistakenly thought transfering the meshes would suffice and didnt think i had to make the high poly's a child of the dummy meshes dude, I feel like a like such a dumb-ass man

Is there a way to setup a driving force steering wheel by manually configurating the properties in the directory? Or would it just be better to get the dual shock logitech game-pad controller?

[Carl Buhre]

I finally see what i did wrong dude, i mistakenly thought transfering the meshes would suffice and didnt think i had to make the high poly's a child of the dummy meshes dude, I feel like a like such a dumb-ass man

Is there a way to setup a driving force steering wheel by manually configurating the properties in the directory? Or would it just be better to get the dual shock logitech game-pad controller?

The steering wheels can be tricky to set up because they don't use the same input values as a keyboard and gamepad does (which is what we use as default). So you have to autodetect the steering wheel for it to work. Sometimes you need to tweak the settings in the "advanced" section to get it working properly.

I would recommend using a gamepad.

[JohnnyBob]

Okay, I tried to have it auto-detect My logitech steering wheel, its the driving force GT from logitech origianally made for My PS3 but they made drivers for the PC as well, unfortunately it will not pick up on the wheel for some reason so I guess Ill just go buy the game pad which one is it that is recognized by the application automatically so I make sure to get that particular gamepad?

[JohnnyBob]

Hmmm odd it just all the sudden auto detected it on its own, never did anything just went to load keyboard settings and it was up Thank Ya for the reply Carl, Your Cool Man

[Carl Buhre]

In Windows we support all DirectX-compatible inputs. And that's pretty much every gamepad/joystick that's ever made since 1995 so you can't really go wrong, it's all about personal preference.

When you're try to autodetect a Steering Wheel input in Craft Director Studio, you will need to do a pretty quick "yank" of the steering wheel for it do be detected. The pedals and buttons are ok, it's just the steering wheel that you have to make a quick movement for it to acknowledge.

[JohnnyBob]

Yeah it recognizes everything correctly except for my combination peddles, it recognizes them but the accelerator makes the car go in reverse and it dont automatically generate the second input, ive tried playin around with it to get it to work correctly but not luck yet, ive just been using the keyboard up arrow for now

Im currently working on a video tutorial that i was gonna be uploading to YouTube soon specifically for Cinema 4D R11.5 users from start to end and it is all thanks to You Carl and Ill be sure to credit You for the tutorial bro

[Carl Buhre]

Yeah it recognizes everything correctly except for my combination peddles, it recognizes them but the accelerator makes the car go in reverse and it dont automatically generate the second input, ive tried playin around with it to get it to work correctly but not luck yet, ive just been using the keyboard up arrow for now

A customer who had this same problem got it working using these settings:

Gas Pedal- mapped to Accelerator with a [-0.5 Multiplier] [0.0 Deadzone] [0.5 Offset]
ABS Brake- mapped to Brake pedal with [-0.1 Multiplier] [0.1 Deadzone] [0.0 Offset]

You can edit the Multiplier/Deadzone by clicking "Advanced" for the specific input in the Input Settings window.

Im currently working on a video tutorial that i was gonna be uploading to YouTube soon specifically for Cinema 4D R11.5 users from start to end and it is all thanks to You Carl and Ill be sure to credit You for the tutorial bro

Sounds great, we're looking forward to seeing the results!

[JohnnyBob]

Hey Carl I origianally posted this in a different thread but i was wondering if You might have a remedy for this

TITLED: Moving Object breaks the sound barrier?


When I select one of the wheel meshes for 4wheeler extended and try to place the object in the correct position it starts to take off in warp speed across the view portal in object mode or selection mode, the only way to make controlled precise movements of the object is to enter the perimeters manually and its painfully time consuming

Can someone tell Me wth Im doing wrong here, Ive looked all over in settings and I really dont know enough yet to fix My demise

Any help on this would be great and I would be greatful dudes I can tell Ya that these models are being converted from an older version of Cinema 4D(I think version 8 or 9) to My current version which is R11.5- could that be the culprit or is there a setting that i can adjust to slow down the movement control, its only on a few select objects that do that, not all the objects react that way, some of them move normally

JohnnyBob

[Carl Buhre]

Hey Carl I origianally posted this in a different thread but i was wondering if You might have a remedy for this

TITLED: Moving Object breaks the sound barrier?


When I select one of the wheel meshes for 4wheeler extended and try to place the object in the correct position it starts to take off in warp speed across the view portal in object mode or selection mode, the only way to make controlled precise movements of the object is to enter the perimeters manually and its painfully time consuming

Can someone tell Me wth Im doing wrong here, Ive looked all over in settings and I really dont know enough yet to fix My demise

Any help on this would be great and I would be greatful dudes I can tell Ya that these models are being converted from an older version of Cinema 4D(I think version 8 or 9) to My current version which is R11.5- could that be the culprit or is there a setting that i can adjust to slow down the movement control, its only on a few select objects that do that, not all the objects react that way, some of them move normally

JohnnyBob

I've stumbled across this problem myself on occasion but it's not our software that's causing it, it's CINEMA 4D. I'm fairly certain it has to do with the scale. It could be that the scale in the transform doesn't match the scale of the actual mesh, and thus it (CINEMA 4D) thinks that the mesh is really small and has to be moved fast.
I don't know how to remedy this yet but I'll try to look at it if I get some time over.

[JohnnyBob]

oh you i misguided ya there a bit, its not just the mesh from director tools bro, its more-so the car parts thats doin it, only the dummy wheels selected by themselves are doin that as far as i have seen, mostly actual car body parts doin it from what ive seen so far

[Carl Buhre]

Hmm, it has to do with parenting. Creating a "fresh" Craft 4-Wheeler Extended, if you try and move 4WheelerExt_01_CarBodyMesh it moves OK but if you try to move 4WheelerExt_01_ChassisRelocatorMesh it moves in hyper speed. But if you move 4WheelerExt_01_ChassisRelocatorMesh to the root of the scene instead of it being a child of 4WheelerExt_01_CarBodyMesh, it moves OK.

I'll see if I can find a workaround.

[JohnnyBob]

so i could try unparenting for a moment then do the move and see if that will work eh? i could give that a shot anyway

Edit: well Im thinkin not so easy

when i transfer my dummy wheels it seems to line everything up okay, its just the move that can be a bit frustating

[guntis1]

Hello!
I have a problem with Craft 4-Wheeler Ext. in Cinema 4D R11.5
I follow step by step this tutorial but nothing works, car do not move, I tried 100 times but nothing works. Is there a difference between Cinema 4D R11 and Cinema 4D R11.5? Is it possible to get a video tutorial how to rig a car using Craft Director Studio in Cinema 4D R11.5?

[guntis1]

Hello!
I have a problem with Craft 4-Wheeler Ext. in Cinema 4D R11.5
I follow step by step this tutorial but nothing works, car do not move, I tried 100 times but nothing works. Is there a difference between Cinema 4D R11 and Cinema 4D R11.5? Is it possible to get a video tutorial how to rig a car using Craft Director Studio in Cinema 4D R11.5?

[Carl Buhre]

Hello!
I have a problem with Craft 4-Wheeler Ext. in Cinema 4D R11.5
I follow step by step this tutorial but nothing works, car do not move, I tried 100 times but nothing works. Is there a difference between Cinema 4D R11 and Cinema 4D R11.5? Is it possible to get a video tutorial how to rig a car using Craft Director Studio in Cinema 4D R11.5?

Guntis1,

Did you set up the inputs to control the car? Are you using the default configuration profile?

[JohnnyBob]

Im gonna be putting up a video tutorial after my work is done, i know thats not much help for you now but i think there is one already up for the 11.5 version but its in Korean lang

I have been workin on it here and there though very detailed step by step

[Carl Buhre]

Sounds great! We're looking forward to it.