Real moving tanktreads ( tanktracks ) in LW

[Djamu]

Hi everybody

My first submission on this forum, think it's a good one

What's this about ?
After long thinking on how to solve the circular parenting problem found in chains - & tanktreads - ( that particular problem has a name but it slips my mind right now ).
I came with this solution.

The chain in this movie isn't parented to anything ( the chain itself is 1 part, treated like a cloth ! )
Altough it's not that easy & requires some tricks & some serious tweaking to "hack" cloth dynamics.

But once you know the "system", it's quite easy to setup

to give an idea of the time spend on this problem

moddelling tracks
+ vehicle < 2 h
scene surface < 5 min. ( procedural displacement )
texturing < less then 10 min, quickly threw my favorite rusty textures on the model, rusty because then it's easier to follow the wheel movements
motion capturing < 2 min. (realtime, but that's another story )
tread system < 3h to get a working tread ( flat surface only Z-axis )

some exotic expressions & IK

& an additional 35 ! h to make the treads work in a "real world" environment ( sharp corners, quick acceleration etc.... )
( jeez though work until..... I found the trick .. )

So I guess i'll have to write a fancy tutorial on this one

I'm about to finish this movie with - smoke, dust & trails -
(the fun easy stuff)

still have to write a custom Lscript, could use some help on that one
- I need a script that accumulates the result of an expression, something like > B=expression, A=A+B, A goes to channel, A=0 on frame 0
Don't know if it's even possible in Lscript - certainly not as an expression, or am I wrong ?

Enjoy

& for those who wonder, I didn't use any 3rd party plugins ;)
and just 1 motionpath , everything else is expressions

check out the movie !! >

http://3d.uk.to/content/movies/tanktrack_d_divx.avi

[3DL]

This is awsome ! How about realistic motion !

You rock !

[Djamu]

3DL > How about realistic motion

What do you mean?

did you see the demo movie ?

how realistic can a motion be if I simulated this thing in autocad ( powered by a 1200KW engine & as a 8300Kg vehicle included suspension with torsionbars ) & exported this motion ( body only xyz/hpb) to lightwave

[Sir_Vulcan]

looks really cool, but I think the track is to loose, looks like it could fall off.well done, just tighten the track and it will be perfect.

[3DL]

:sm: Sorry for my bad englsih, I meant, like wow this is realistic motion ! :sm:


This rocks !