This is a fun, easy to replicate tutorial that is aimed at beginners in Autodesk Maya.
1. Import the vehicle rig.
Yellow Beetle Animation Tutorial
Yellow Beetle Rig
The Beetle rig, snappily titled ""Swappable Car Rig with Ubershockies - The AnyCar 3.1.4 for Maya" is a great way to get some fun, cartoony vehicle animation into your demo reel. It squashes and stretches nicely, and you can make it bounce and sway as it chugs along. Although you might need to stick a driver behind the wheel on a close-up or medium shot, the Beetle can be made to have a personality all of its own.
Why bother with animating vehicles?
Go and see any Hollywood action film these days and you will see tons of stunt car animation. There is plenty of work for animators who can bring things like cars, helicopters and robots to life in a convincing and believable way.
Check out some of the excellent work below done by our students at Animation Apprentice.
Car Skid by Marc Godfrey (below)
This skidding car below by Marc Godfrey has charm and style.
The Beetle rig, snappily titled ""Swappable Car Rig with Ubershockies - The AnyCar 3.1.4 for Maya" is a great way to get some fun, cartoony vehicle animation into your demo reel. It squashes and stretches nicely, and you can make it bounce and sway as it chugs along. Although you might need to stick a driver behind the wheel on a close-up or medium shot, the Beetle can be made to have a personality all of its own.
Why bother with animating vehicles?
 |
| Yellow Beetle by Aaron Parker |
Go and see any Hollywood action film these days and you will see tons of stunt car animation. There is plenty of work for animators who can bring things like cars, helicopters and robots to life in a convincing and believable way.
Check out some of the excellent work below done by our students at Animation Apprentice.
Car Skid by Marc Godfrey (below)
This skidding car below by Marc Godfrey has charm and style.
Stunt Car by Greg Gordon (below)
Skidding Car by Henry Fenwick (below)
Yellow Beetle Rig Tips
The rig has a tendency to crash whenever you try to keyframe the main mover control. Save your work often. You can also email us for an updated version of the rig.
Skidding Car by Henry Fenwick (below)
Yellow Beetle Rig Tips
Scalability
This rig does not scale. This means you will have to scale your geometry (such as your set and props) instead.
Disappearing Control Curves
The control curves have a tendency to disappear. If the controls disappear, the solution is to go to display/show/all - this will bring them back. You may have to do this often.
Tutorials
This rig does not scale. This means you will have to scale your geometry (such as your set and props) instead.
Disappearing Control Curves
The control curves have a tendency to disappear. If the controls disappear, the solution is to go to display/show/all - this will bring them back. You may have to do this often.
Tutorials
You can find the three part tutorial for the yellow Beetle in motion below:.
Car Animation Part 1
Car_Tutorial_Pt1 from Alexander Williams on Vimeo.
Car Animation Part 2
Car Animation Part 3
The password is the same as for all our videos.
Work Method
2. Create your project, set to it, and save it.
3. Test drive the various control curves so you know what they all do.
4. Set your timeline from frame 101 to 125.
5. Now, to create the illusion of motion, we will start by keying the squash control:
a. Up at frame 101.
b. Down at frame 104.
c. Up at frame 107,
d. Down at frame 110,
e. Up at frame 113.
6. Now copy the curves and paste them so you have key frames running from 101 to 125.
7. Turn on infinity curves so you can adjust the curves and make them pretty
8. Now key the move control (pointy arrow at front of car) using the rotate control
a. Frame 101. Roll car to left
b. Frame 113 roll car to right
c. Frame 125 Roll car to left.
9. Now key the Body_ctrl (pointy arrow at front of car) using the translate control.
a. Frame 101 Car up
b. Frame 104 Car down
c. Frame 117 Car up
d. Frame 110 Car down
e. Frame 113 Car up (The simplest way to achieve this is to copy the curve we created at stage 5, and paste it here)
10. Now copy the same up and down curve and paste it onto each wheel of the car. Scale the curves and offset them in the graph editor so each wheel moves slightly differently.
11. Turn on infinity curves on all the control curves and make sure that the vehicle cycle is smooth and flowing. The action should loop successfully.
12. Save your work
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