Forum - Craft Animations - 3d animation tools

I've only been using this plugin for a few days but I've hit a road block, no pun intended. I'm using the 4WheelerExt tool and I've got my model rigged properly following a CV curve. What I can't figure out is how to speed up the car, right now it takes it 900 frames to follow the curve completely, and I’d like to have the car finish the path in 400 frames. Can someone tell me how to adjust the speed of a car following a CV curve?

Maxer wrote:I've only been using this plugin for a few days but I've hit a road block, no pun intended. I'm using the 4WheelerExt tool and I've got my model rigged properly following a CV curve. What I can't figure out is how to speed up the car, right now it takes it 900 frames to follow the curve completely, and I’d like to have the car finish the path in 400 frames. Can someone tell me how to adjust the speed of a car following a CV curve?

Hello Maxer and welcome to our forum. In the Configuration window of Craft 4-Wheeler Extended, near the bottom, there is a setting called "Gas Pedal (Forw/Backw) Maximum". Increase this value to increase the top speed of the car.

Carl I tried adjusting that setting from .5 all the way to 50 and it made no difference in the current velocity. The way I did it was to change the setting and then re-record the motion, am I missing something?

Maxer wrote:Carl I tried adjusting that setting from .5 all the way to 50 and it made no difference in the current velocity. The way I did it was to change the setting and then re-record the motion, am I missing something?

Hmm ok, then is the TargetMesh really reaching the end of the spline at frame 400?

No the target mesh reaches the end of the spline at frame 900 and never exceeds a velocity of 9.5.

Maxer wrote:No the target mesh reaches the end of the spline at frame 900 and never exceeds a velocity of 9.5.

When Craft 4-Wheeler Extended is in Autonomous Mode it will follow TargetMesh as best as it can depending on its settings. And now since you're top speed is more than enough for it to keep up with the TargetMesh you will need to make sure that TargetMesh reaches the end of the spline at frame 400 instead of 900.

How do you do that?

Maxer wrote:How do you do that?

Here's one way of doing it in 3ds MAX:

From the Animation menu, select "Constraints" and then "Path Constraint".


Click on the Curve to select it.


Finally, move the key that was created, from the end frame 900 to the desired key frame 400.



In Maya, this is one way of doing it:

Click the box next to "Attach to Motion Path".


Select "Start/End", enter the End time '400' and finally click Apply.

Thanks for the help, the plugin works great and I just purchased it.