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• Animation Techniques > Rotating Wheels on a Car - Maya Tutorial (Posted By: cgking)
• :: Post Date: 2007-03-14 10:13:39 [Post Comment] [Post Articles]

• Rotating Wheels on a Car Software Used: Autodesk Maya By: Larry Neuberger neuberl@alfredstate.edu URL: http://www.poorhousefx.com/ Source files provided by Jim Gravina (Alfred State College, Class of 2003) Introduction My name is Larry Neuberger and I am a professor at Alfred State College in Alfred NY. I created this tutorial for use in my classes and most of my students found them to be helpful. I now decided to submit it to be published on the web hoping it can help others as well. The purpose of this tutorial is to show you how to rotate the wheels on a car so they follow the pace of the car as it move. By doing it this way, you will get a more accurate result without setting numerous keyframes. To do this, we will use the distance tool, set driven key, and infinity cycles in the graph editor. Getting Accurate Distance Measurements The first thing you need to do before we get started is to group everything accordingly. Notice below, I have a group for each individual tire, a group for the car body, and a main group consisting of everything. [Click Here For Large Image] Once everything is grouped, all we really need to do is use the set driven key to animate the wheel rotation, but first we need to figure out how far the car must travel for the tires to go a full 260 degrees. NOTE: If you want to be precise with the rotation, here is a formula you can use: (Px2) + Radius = Distance Once again, use the distance tool to figure out the radius of the tire. To use the distance tool go to create > measure tools > distance tool. [Click Here For Large Image] Go to create > measure tools > distance tool. Click on the bottom middle of the tire to get a start point. [Click Here For Large Image] Click on the top middle for the end point and press enter. You can see I have a radius of 4.16 Now plug that into the equation above and we get the following: (Px2) + Radius = Distance 6.28 + 4.16 = 10.44 Now we know that when the car travels a distance of 10.44 the tires should rotate 360 degrees. So now we will use the distance tool one more time (create > measure tools > distance tool). Then click near the bottom middle of the front tire, then click and drag the end point a distance of 10.44 away. After going to create > measure tools > distance tool, click near the bottom center of the tire to get a start point. Then click and drag until the distance says roughly 10.14. [Click Here For Large Image] [Click Here For Large Image] Now we have a guide as to how far the car needs to travel for the tires to rotate 360 degrees and we can now start using the set driven key to animate it. Animating the Rotation of the Tires Go to Animate > Set Driven Key > Set [options box]. This will open the set driven key box where we can start working. [Click Here For Large Image] [Click Here For Large Image] Now, for this we have the tires as four individual groups, the car’s body as a group, and everything together as a main group. So the Driver would be the main group (this is what will affect the tires rotation) and the Driven would be the individual tires (this is what is being affected). Select the main group and in the set driven key window, click load driver. [Click Here For Large Image] The car will be translating along both the X and Z axis, but we have to do each individually. So for now we will do the Z axis so Select translate Z to the right of the driver. [Click Here For Large Image] Now we will set the driven (the tires). Select all four tires, then in the set driven key window click load driven. [Click Here For Large Image] When the car moves, we want the tires to rotate around the X axis. Now select all four tires in the driven section, then the rotate X to the right of the driven. [Click Here For Large Image] Now just press the Key button to set the keyframe for this position and rotation. [Click Here For Large Image] We have now just keyed the beginning of the tire rotation. Now we need to key the end effector. Select the main group and move it so the front tire is at the end distance we calculated. [Click Here For Large Image] Then select the four tires and change the X rotation in the channel box to 360. [Click Here For Large Image] Then go back to the set driven key window and press the Key button. [Click Here For Large Image] We have now just set the beginning rotation and the end rotation after the cars movement. Close the set driven key window, select the car and move it along the Z axis to test the results. You will see the tires rotate, but only for that short distance we set it to. We need to cycle that rotation to an infinite amount. Select all four tires and go to Window > Animation Editors > Graph Editor. Then select all the curves in the window. [Click Here For Large Image] [Click Here For Large Image] Now we want to cycle the before and after rotation to an infinite amount. So go to Curves > Pre-Infinity > Cycle. This will cycle the before motion. Then go to Curves > Post-Infinity > Cycle. This will cycle the after motion. [Click Here For Large Image] [Click Here For Large Image] That is it. Now close all the windows, select the car and drag it back and forth along the Z axis and the tires will rotate accordingly. Notice, if you move the car slow, the tires rotate slow. If you move the car fast, the tires rotate fast. The only other thing you would need to do is set the rotation of the tires for the X axis as well because chances are that the car will not only be moving along one axis. To do this, simply rotate the car 90 degrees along the Y axis so it is facing the X axis, then repeat the steps above. NOTE: The only thing you will need to do different this time is change the Driver to translate X instead of Z like before. Everything else, including the rotation of the driven remains the same.

• Comments: (Currently there are 23 comments.)
• 
• • [Anonymous]Gowriraj ( 2010-07-21 20:52:28 ) [Post Comments]

  • i will got lot of ides in this tutorial. thankyou

  • [Anonymous] ( 2010-05-21 04:39:08 ) [Post Comments]

  • Although a very informative tutorial this does not solve the problem on tire rotations, ie turning the car left or right. The tires must also be able to turn independently from the car because the way a real car works, it is the tires that drive the body not the body of the car.

  • [Anonymous]air max ( 2010-02-08 17:20:04 ) [Post Comments]

  • nice ,thanks for sharing http://www.air-max-shoes.com I also share a website

  • [Anonymous]maya tutorials ( 2010-01-06 19:13:23 ) [Post Comments]

  • Thanks a lot to share good amount of nice content that will improve my skill. I liked the car...maya tutorials

  • [Anonymous]Mr_Cadcam ( 2009-11-17 02:29:19 ) [Post Comments]

  • Formula for Circumference using a know diameter is: PI*Diameter PI = 3.1415 Diameter as stated above = 4.164 Distance then equates to: 13.081 to roll the tire a complete 360° not 10.44

  • Bertan ( 2009-10-23 23:29:36 ) [Post Comments]

  • Hi, I am also experiencing the same problem when rotating the car body 180degrees, the wheels turn an opposite direction, How can I also solve this?

  • [Anonymous]arnel ( 2009-10-21 06:23:01 ) [Post Comments]

  • nice a back to the future maya tutorial

  • [Anonymous]jeff goldbloom ( 2009-08-03 00:57:53 ) [Post Comments]

  • the formula counts with diameter not radius... thats nonsense. the right calculation shoud be 2x3.14x2.08 = circle lenght but even einstein shoot himself a holt in the knee... :D

  • [Anonymous]cristian ( 2009-03-08 00:25:17 ) [Post Comments]

  • thanks!! Great tutorial and very good!

  • [Anonymous] ( 2008-07-31 19:28:16 ) [Post Comments]

  • Don't U think that the measuring tool on the third picture shows the diameter, but not the radius. And, to my mind, the formula using to compute the length of circumference has to look like 2xPxR or PxD (P=3.14, R - radius, D- diameter), but not as shown in the tutorial. What kind of professor could write those.

  • [Anonymous]satish3danimation@gm ( 2008-06-14 20:48:32 ) [Post Comments]

  • 13Comment

  • [Anonymous]Peltio ( 2008-04-23 23:42:45 ) [Post Comments]

  • Great tutorial, very instructive. Thanks!

  • [Anonymous]sathiyaraj ( 2008-04-15 15:08:25 ) [Post Comments]

  • car tutoriyal

  • [Anonymous] ( 2008-03-19 23:04:55 ) [Post Comments]

  • p is pie = 3.14

  • [Anonymous] ( 2008-03-19 23:04:26 ) [Post Comments]

  • p is pie 3.14

  • [Anonymous]vishesh ( 2008-03-12 03:31:47 ) [Post Comments]

  • hi sir,i found ure tutorial very useful, in fact i figured out(because of this tut) how to move a characters legs when it moves...just like the car, please see this http://vishesche.blogspot.com/2008/03/objective-to-convert-complex-leg-motion.html and http://vishesche.blogspot.com/2008/03/automatic-walk-with-skhandle.html if u find something that can be better or some suggestions please do let me know... thank you.

  • [Anonymous]mani ( 2008-01-30 01:19:32 ) [Post Comments]

  • thanks ,this tutorial is awesome .love you Larry.

  • [Anonymous] ( 2007-12-09 21:45:30 ) [Post Comments]

  • When I rotated the car body 180degrees, the wheels turn an opposite direction, how do I solve that?

  • [Anonymous]rakesh3d ( 2007-11-14 01:48:28 ) [Post Comments]

  • "P" stands for wat in the maths formula. please somebody help me.

  • [Anonymous]srikanth ( 2007-10-26 14:41:25 ) [Post Comments]

  • it was nice to use the basic maths to get accuracy in the animation.

  • [Anonymous]colgate ( 2007-09-09 13:30:01 ) [Post Comments]

  • do u have the chalk model. that one use in playing snooker. pls reply me asap.

  • [Anonymous]Random Guy ( 2007-06-14 09:41:58 ) [Post Comments]

  • This tutorial was well worth your time! Thanks so much

  • [Anonymous]:) ( 2007-04-30 23:35:23 ) [Post Comments]

  • bbd nesamone nx krw bl :)))

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