Trouble making Tank Tracks with PathDeform...
polycounter lvl 7
I've been trying to make some tank tracks follow the edge of a simple tank model I've been working on, and after trying some things I still can't figure it out.
Originally, I made a tank track object with Editable Poly and cloned it many times then used Attach to attach them all together. After using PathDeform it wouldn't look right no matter what options I used and the tracks were getting deformed (not what I want clearly, though in that case is PathDeform even the right modifier? Or is there a way to make sure it doesn't alter the vertices?).
Thought it might have been something about resetting transforms, so I did that and scale too. Nothing changed.
Started again, and so far this is exactly what I've done:
1. Create 2 boxes in a tank track shape.
2. Convert to Editable Poly.
3. Attach 1 to other.
4. Create 50 copies with Array.
5. Select outer edges of tank -> Create Shape.
Now I find I can't seem to attach one instance of the array to another...? Is that because I used the instance option, and it's not necessary to attach them because they're still treated like one object somehow? Although they do have individual names, which confuses me...
I can't seem to apply the PathDeform to all of the tracks together, so I assume I'm meant to group them somehow. Applying it to just one seems not to be working right either so I assume there's more wrong too.
Very lost here... was following a tutorial but it didn't go as expected once I applied the PathDeform. Speaking of which, does it matter much if you use PathDeform or PathDeform(WSM)?
Originally, I made a tank track object with Editable Poly and cloned it many times then used Attach to attach them all together. After using PathDeform it wouldn't look right no matter what options I used and the tracks were getting deformed (not what I want clearly, though in that case is PathDeform even the right modifier? Or is there a way to make sure it doesn't alter the vertices?).
Thought it might have been something about resetting transforms, so I did that and scale too. Nothing changed.
Started again, and so far this is exactly what I've done:
1. Create 2 boxes in a tank track shape.
2. Convert to Editable Poly.
3. Attach 1 to other.
4. Create 50 copies with Array.
5. Select outer edges of tank -> Create Shape.
Now I find I can't seem to attach one instance of the array to another...? Is that because I used the instance option, and it's not necessary to attach them because they're still treated like one object somehow? Although they do have individual names, which confuses me...
I can't seem to apply the PathDeform to all of the tracks together, so I assume I'm meant to group them somehow. Applying it to just one seems not to be working right either so I assume there's more wrong too.
Very lost here... was following a tutorial but it didn't go as expected once I applied the PathDeform. Speaking of which, does it matter much if you use PathDeform or PathDeform(WSM)?
Replies
However, perhaps as to be expected from a modifier called PathDeform, I'm still noticing deformation when the tracks go around sharp edges; specifically that pieces of geometry that should appear attached to each other end up with gaps that look horrible.
Saw this video then:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBuwGbPXg8I
So I imagine what I really need isn't PathDeform at all (and that tutorial must have been wrong), but to always use a Path Constraint for something like this where the objects aren't meant to change shape?
I'll see how I get on with this new information anyway... and come back if I have any more trouble...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBuwGbPXg8I
When I run the script, in my case: , the Track001 object isn't positioned centred on the Dummy object like in the video. Instead it's offset somewhere below the dummy.
The video doesn't mention anything about this... and I can't see anything similar to "Move to Path" like with PathDeform. It's not even possible to manually move it closer.
Any ideas?
EDIT: Ok, I created another track object from scratch and used that on the path constraint and it's working fine now. Why might that be? I had problems before with trying to outline a shape that I'd previously scaled, but I went into Hierarchy and reset the Transform and Scale on this object and that didn't do anything.
What kind of operations on an object might cause this kind of behaviour? It's these unexpected behaviours that I find frustrating about working with 3ds Max...