Forum - Craft Animations - 3d animation tools

Hi ,
I'm using Craft four wheeler extension . I've been trying to create a simple race scenario between two cars . Now when i have finished rigging the first car and parented the gravity transform to the base surface mesh , . When i try to record an animation , the car jumps to a place , which is not where i had placed the car . The place from where it starts is the from the pivot point of the base mesh . Could you please let me know i'm doing something wrong here ? i've tried re rigging it a couple of times , but the same issue persists.

Waiting for your replies.

Krishnan C R

krishnancr wrote:Hi ,
I'm using Craft four wheeler extension . I've been trying to create a simple race scenario between two cars . Now when i have finished rigging the first car and parented the gravity transform to the base surface mesh , . When i try to record an animation , the car jumps to a place , which is not where i had placed the car . The place from where it starts is the from the pivot point of the base mesh . Could you please let me know i'm doing something wrong here ? i've tried re rigging it a couple of times , but the same issue persists.

Waiting for your replies.

Krishnan C R

Hello Krishnan and welcome to our forum.

This is a minor bug that can occur in Maya. What happens is that Craft 4-Wheeler Extended is repositioned in frame 0 to its gravityDirectionMesh. What you need to do to fix this is go to frame 0 (or the first frame of your animation) and re-position the gravityDirectionMesh (the red arrow) to the car's position and create a keyframe for it (keyboard: s). Now you should be able to Record without the car jumping back to its original position.

Please let us know how it worked out or if the problem persists.

Dear Carl,

Thank you for your prompt response.

In the scene that i'm creating , at frame 0 the position of the gravity mesh is at the location that i want. But i manually created another key at frame 0 and on trying to record an animation , it does run back to the pivot position. At frame 0 it is at the desired position , but at frame 1 it moves away from it .

Another work around that i was thinking about but have not tried yet is moving the pivot point directly to the necessary location , but that would mean , if i have 2 cars using 4WE both would start at the same location . i might have to duplicate the base mesh and make it non renderable and move the pivot point for that once again .

But would you advice , setting up the rig afresh and trying to key at frame 0 before i start recording the animation for the first time ?

Thank you

Krishnan C R

krishnancr wrote:But would you advice , setting up the rig afresh and trying to key at frame 0 before i start recording the animation for the first time ?

If you create a new 4-Wheeler Extended you will definitely be able to move where you want before you press Record for the first time, and you don't need to set any key frames before recording. It's only after you've recorded it once that the gravityDirectionMesh (red arrow) can be a little bit uncooperative in Maya.

Do you think you could send us the scene so I can take a look at it? You could try sending it to support@craftanimations.com or just send an e-mail requesting FTP access and I'll set up an FTP account for you to upload to.

Yeah . I can do that . I'll send a mail and once FTP is set , i'll transfer the scene across to the folder and intimate you. In the mean time i've created a new rig and started animating my scene. This time around it works like a charm . Once i'm done with the scene , i'll upload the video somewhere in youtube and send you the link. I'd be really happy to receive your feedback and suggestions.

Krishnan

Hi.
The latest BETA version (see "beta versions" in this forum) of the 4-wheeler extended also solves this problem, however if you use this latest version your settings may have to be adjusted.
// Luigi TA