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“connecting” the cab and trailer – 18 wheeler truck
Hi. I need to create a scene where a row of trucks travel on a road and then turn at a particular point. The objects will move most likey with and align to spline tag, or I may create a cloner using the spline effector. It’s a simple scene really, I don’t need the wheels to turn or anything fancy, but I do need the trailer to pivot relative to the cab when the truck turns in one direction or another
I’ve tried working with the dynamics hinge connector, then disabling the dynamics for the cab so I can key frame it’s motion and pull the trailer along with its motion, but the hinge goes haywire after that, forcing y-axis anomalies and other artifacts, doesn’t seem to like being connected to a non-dynamic object.
Am I just not doing it right or is there a better way to approach this? Thanks in advance
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2 Replies
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I wouldn’t mess with dynamics for this — too many headaches. Instead I’d use separate cloners for the cab and trailer. It takes a little experimentation to get the right axis position for the trailer because they actually rotate from a point between their center and the hinge.
But once you get that about right you can set up two spline effectors to place both pieces of the truck on your path. The trailer will be offset a little more. Once you get them place you can drive the offset of the trailer with the offset of the cab. To do that you right-click on the cab’s offset parameter and select Xpressions>Driver. The right-click on the trailer’s offset parameter and select Xpressions>Driven (Relative).
Example: 7952_trucksalongspline.c4d.zip
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Spectacular Adam, cant thank you enough for the info and the sample, exactly what I was looking for!
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