Features
Body alignment to wheels
Automatic wheel rotation.
Automatic tread animation.
Up to right extra wheels for cars and trailers.
Spinn and brake override with sliders for wheels and treads.
Weight controller for car, tank and trailer.
Multiple rigs in one scene.
The rigs
"Master null" rig
Position and rotation are animated by the user. W_Slide can be applied for automatic sliding and wheel heading.
"Simple throttle" rig
Throttle and steering are controlled inside a LightWave slider panel.
Position and rotation are calculated, sliding can be keyframed by rotating the rotation controller.
"Throttle n' slide" rig
Throttle, steering and sliding amount are controlled inside a LightWave slider panel.
Position, rotation and sliding are calculated.
Ground interaction
Ground needs to be a textured displaced mesh, procedural or image map.
An heightmap can easily be rendered from LightWave and used for displacing the ground mesh.
If changes are made to the ground after rigs have been created, Vehicle Rigger's displacement updater can be used to update the rigs in the scene.
Animated procedurals are supported.
Required steps before using Vehicle Rigger
This is basic information what needs to be done before using Vehicle Rigger.
Cars and trailers
Body and each wheel needs to be in its own layer.
Set the wheels pivot in modeler or layout.
Tanks
The tank rig requires a morph for the right and left tread. A tutorial on this can be found
here.
Body, tread and each wheel needs to be in its own layer.
Set the wheels pivot in modeler or layout.