Help on rigging multiple cars

[moralist-boy]

HI ,
I have a scene with about 300 cars in it consist of about 11 different model and the others are copy!
i want record a simulation using a 4wheel ext. and use it to rig all the cars so the cars can all move together .
is there a way to do this without pain ???
the cars should be placed in a 50 cars x 60 cars grid !
how should i do that ?
thanks in advice
and sorry for my poor english

[Carl Buhre]

HI ,
I have a scene with about 300 cars in it consist of about 11 different model and the others are copy!
i want record a simulation using a 4wheel ext. and use it to rig all the cars so the cars can all move together .
is there a way to do this without pain ???
the cars should be placed in a 50 cars x 60 cars grid !
how should i do that ?
thanks in advice
and sorry for my poor english

Start by rigging the 11 different models in 11 different scenes. That shouldn't have to take more than an hour. After the vehicles are all rigged you can open your parking lot scene/world scene and just merge in all the cars until you have your 300 cars.

[moralist-boy]

thanks for your Help .
but since i want all the cars to have same animation. - move together with same speed and direction - with 11 different car rigs how can i do so ?
i prefer to use only one 4wheelext and some how use it for all !
if i could somehow paste the keys from the low poly car to it's linked high poly car it would be less headache .
so i could make proxies from my cars with animated keyframes in them and copy the as much as i want !
if i could some how instance the key frames for my high poly cars to the low poly it would be super great !
so when i record a animation to the low poly all the cars would change their respective animation to the low poly !

any help on any of this would be great.

thanks again .

[Carl Buhre]

if i could somehow paste the keys from the low poly car to it's linked high poly car it would be less headache .

I'm assuming you're using 3ds Max. To convert the dummy model's key-frames into regular key frames you can simply use the "Unplug" feature in Craft Director Tools main window (the socket plug icon). Once the car is unplugged you will not be able to re-record any new motion for it but it will keep the animation you have recorded previously.

Now you can either copy the key frames from the dummy model to the high poly model, or simply bake the animation to get the key frames from low poly to high poly.

[moralist-boy]

or simply bake the animation to get the key frames from low poly to high poly.

how can i bake the low poly animation keyframes to the high poly ?

[Carl Buhre]

or simply bake the animation to get the key frames from low poly to high poly.

how can i bake the low poly animation keyframes to the high poly ?

Are you using 3ds Max/Cinema 4D/Maya?

[moralist-boy]

sorry ! i thought that you already knew that i'm using max !
thanks again ,
i'm looking forward for your help

[Carl Buhre]

You can either try a Bake script, such as this: http://hammerbchen.blogspot.com/2007/03 ... -bake.html

Or you can do it like this:

1. Create an animation for Craft 4-Wheeler Extended.
2. Unplug Craft 4-Wheeler Extended (this converts its key frames into regular key frames).
3. Select the dummy object of Craft 4-Wheeler Extended that you want to copy key frames from.
4. Enter "Track View - Curve Editor" ("Graph Editors" -> "Track View - Curve Editor")
5. For the selected object, select "X Position" under Position, right-click it and select "Copy".
6. Select the high-poly object of the car that you want to copy the key frames to (Select in the scene).
7. In the Track View, for the selected object, select "X Position" under Position, right-click it and select "Paste".
8. Repeat steps 5-7 for:
"X Position"
"Y Position"
"Z Position"
and
"Y Rotation"
"Z Rotation"

Repeat steps 3-8 for all of the parts that you want to copy key frames from.


(I can add that an automatic feature for this is on our to-do list.)

[moralist-boy]

thanks Carl , really appreciate for your help .
yesterday i tried the bake script !
it writes some key frame for the high poly object, however when i delete the dummy object the high poly no longer moves !!!
the copy and pasting solution in the graph editor seems to work fine . I'm happy to hear that the you decided to put that as automatic in future versions .
thanks a lot .