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Expression to drive a Tachometer & Speedometer together
Hi everyone,
I am working on animating a gauge cluster in a car and am trying to get an expression to control the needles in both the speedometer and the tachometer.
I can control the rotation of both individually on sliders, but how would I create an expression to drive both off the animation of the tachometer alone?
Obviously, the tachometer should move significantly more than the speedometer, and the speed should rise but shouldn’t fall when the tachometer needle drops while shifting between gears.
For example, these gauges: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q904OkyzrGk
Thanks!
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7 Replies
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It would be very cumbersome and rendering would slow down to a grind after about 30 seconds of animation, as you would have to calculate the speed based on the tachometer values for every preceding frame from the beginning of the animation to the current frame. Moreover, you would have to take into account the gear shifting to make it realistic, so even more calculation.
Much easier to just do it with two sliders, simulating the relationship.
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Yeah, I agree it would be simpler to control both needles separately to simulate gearing. I am still curious to find out a means to do it via expression, as it’s been requested for by a client.
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You have to be able to define the relationship between the two and convert it to an algorithm you can code. Since the speed will probably depend on everything that has happened to the tachometer in the past (not just the current value), it will likely be quite complex.
Dan
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Thank you Dan.
The more I think about it, it sounds like I should bring someone on who can code such an expression. It’s going to be darn complicated no matter what.
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Dan, do you or anyone you know write and code such algorithms? If so could we contract you for the project? I’m going to have a lot of these animations to do, and I could hire out for writing the expression, it’d be extremely helpful.
Feel free to send me a private message if you could be a part of the project and a quote as to how much it would be. Thanks!
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I think there are probably any number of people that could do it, but it all comes down to how completely and precisely you can define the requirements. From what I know at this point, there would be no way to estimate the effort involved.
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I see. I’m going to look into some freelancers and see what I can find.
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