3DS MAX | MADCAR
Get revved up with Oscar Juárez as he details how you can create a realistic animation with help from a 3ds Max plugin
Creating in 3D becomes more and more friendly every passing day with new tools being released. These are incredibly helpful for working on various objects and most aid us in one important aspect: creating the most in less time.
I do the majority of my work in 3ds Max, and one thing I love is that animations can be quickly modified as many times as we need, allowing us to speed up our process and add complexity.
This time I’ll be using a plugin called MadCar. Back in issue 310, I showed you how to animate a car wheel using 3ds Max’s built-in tools, and at the end we had a vehicle with fully animated tyres that moved in a straight line. Here we’ll rig the car in a much more fun and interactive way.
The idea here is to create the animation in real-time, which means actually driving the car in the scene just like you would in a video game. We’ll add dummies and use some of the other tools the plugin brings, including the car’s suspension.
01 SPLIT THE WHEELS FROM THE CAR
The first step is to select the right model to work with. We can have an amazing sports car with the wheels attached, but it will mean extra work splitting away the wheels and other components. Most of the time I select a model with the wheels separate from the chassis to avoid wasting the time. Once you get the full workflow down, you can use any car model and also place it in your model library.
02 SET THE MAIN WHEEL DUMMY
It’s time to begin the process of adding dummies for the wheels. Set the Viewport to a side view so you can see the wheels, then go to the Helpers tab in the Create menu and select MadCar. Remember to have the Snaps turned on, click on the wheel and drag it to create the dummy. We can adjust its size and position later.
03 ADJUST THE WHEEL DUMMIES
The dummy is in the wheel because we had the Snap tool on, but the size isn’t right. It’s pretty easy to use the Scale tool to make it fit, but in the past I have encountered various errors when launching the animation, so I’d recommend selecting the dummy and adjusting its size to exceed the wheel a little in each axis. It’s also a good idea to use the Rotate tool to set the arrow facing the other side of the tyre.
