Cineversity

Hi Guys

I’m trying to rig a bicycle that moves along a spline and I have hit a brick wall. I have tried the constraint tag but can’t seem to get it to work.

If any one could show me the right direction that would be great.

Thanks

Gary

Hi Gary,

Please share a scene file of your project, just the bike and the spline and perhaps a cube where the wall would be, really: nothing more (just reduced).

All the best

Here is the file, please don’t share as this isn’t my model.

I don’t want the bike to hit a wall that was just a figure of speech. lol.

I just need the bike to move along a spline and have the both wheels follow the shape of the spline.

I have put a constraint tag on the second wheel but it’s position isn’t correct.

Thanks for your help.

Gary

Hi Gary,

I got your file and I have taken it down before any other upload could happen.

Take to you soon.

Hi Gary,

I have attached a file with an new reduced bike, as per your request not to use the original model.

The question here was about the path and the bike.

The target seemed to be a flat floor request, based on the given Spline.

In a nutshell, since splines and positions are not really progressing in distance per percent values, I created first a rig to have all the “floor” data.

The next (top to bottom in the object manager) is then, to use this stable position (based as well on a rail) to set up the rig for bike itself. Since these kind of bikes were not really fast, I assumed a constant vertical position would be OK. No leaning inside of the curve to compensate for centrifugal forces. You might see that the first rig will have expanding objects, but they expand only on straight parts of the spline, and so its OK. In a curve they are back to working distances. More points normally allows for more precision, but also for a much more complicated adjustment.

The rotation connect details are dependent to the wheels. The Previous/Current Position (->Distance) to Previous plus current rotation is not something that you have asked for. I saw you have worked on it, so I left it alone, to keep the set up more readable. Of course - it is all deleted as you have asked for.

I hope that will support your effort for the project

My best wishes

Many thanks for your time and knowledge, I really appreciate it.

Gary

Thanks for the nice feedback, Gray, very much appreciated.

ENJOY.

P.S.: I wanted to share a simple way to have the wheel rotated along a Spline. I use the MoSpline for that, so the Tire sits on the end of the MoSpline (Align to Spline Pos:100%) but the End parameter of the MoSpline runs the whole show. In this way, the measured distance should be precise. The Previous Pos and Distance set up can have some surprises.

Sorry, to be a little bit late with that but I needed some time to test it, as I haven’t done this one in any project.

In the set up I always think to have 5% longer Splines for the path is a good idea.

Have a look at the one minute clip: [can be downloaded]
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/NFddLbHDitT2WDEB1hrl8lkeI0WUvsdzgVgnWbGglLP?ref_=cd_ph_share_link_copy

Enjoy

That’s a great rig with the torus, a quick question on the bike rig when I animate the position I see the position target seems to control the speed is there a way to have a constant speed?

Gary

Hi Gary,

I tried to explain it above, I will do it in a different way. The Spline Node, as some other 0-100% Spline based things in C4D are taking editable points as separation in the percent value.

In the provided file you will see one spline “Spline” object with five points (0-4)and the other “Spline.1” object with 314 points and 1cm distance from one to another. The second one will be much more precise, but nearly impossible to change as easily as the “Spline” with five points.

Have a look at this clip, one minute long: [you can download it if you like]
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/cqX2rUYETZZThEA4iwsTl4c0fBaOZ0UGrOuWWPrNvvW?ref_=cd_ph_share_link_copy

IF you have found your path, make a copy (to keep the original setting, then use Subdivision as small as you like, set it to linear perhaps and use this for the XPresso. Any change, goes from the original in the same way.

A perhaps different method is to place a Range Mapper between the User Data and the Spline Node and adjust the Spline-Interface of the Range Mapper accordingly. (If you need an example, let me know. But each time you change the Spline, the Range Mapper needs a change as well!

All the best