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As shown in the shot above, for the sake of clarity I’ve pulled both the windshield and the wiper objects into a new MAX scene. The scene is using the standard unit setting (1 unit = 1 meters); and the objects are in their original positions. While you don’t have to do this, I prefer to animate in small, efficient scenes using only the assets that the animation requires.
Set-up and Prerequisites
There are a few basic items you want to be sure of regarding the wiper itself before you try to animate. If any of these are not addressed now, they will most-certainly affect the rigging of the wiper, and consequently the final exported object and animation.
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If you navigate back to the “Modify” tab, with the wiper selected, you should now see a “XForm” modifier in the object’s stack. Go ahead and collapse the modifier stack by right-clicking on the “XForm” modifier and selecting “Collapse To” from the menu (Image 8).
Image 8
Creating the Rig
You should now only have an “Editable Poly” base modifier (or “Editable Mesh” if your wiper was a mesh object). You are now ready to create bones (your “rig”) so the wiper can be “skinned” to them.
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Select the wiper object, and then click the “Modify” tab. Add a “Skin” modifier to the wiper object. You’ll need to first add the bones to the modifier. Above the empty “Bones:” list is an “Add” button. Click that, and then select the three bones you created. NOTE: ANY object can be used as a bone, so be sure you ONLY add anything but the bones, as in Image 16:
Image 16
Weighting
With the bones added, you’re now ready to “weight” the object’s vertices to them. This is what allows the object to bend and move properly with the bones. I won’t lie, weighting can be time consuming and tedious, especially with organic objects (people, animals, etc). However, it’s also EXTREMELY important to get right. The good news is that, as is the case with wiper, mechanical objects are MUCH easier to do. In fact, most of the time the weighting is binary--either “on” or “off” for each bone.
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If there is a vertex (or vertices) that doesn’t react as you expect, simply undo the bone rotation, select the wiper object, and edit the weighting for the vertex/bone in question. Since we did some very straight-forward weighting you shouldn’t have many issue to correct, if any. Once everything is the way you want it, you’re ready to begin animating.
Animating
I would suggest taking a traditional animator’s approach to animating in 3D--setting up a series of primary poses throughout the length of the animation, or (“Keyframes”). By doing this, you can quickly work out timing, motion and expression. This is especially true for animated characters and other organic objects. Mechanical objects are much easier to animate; but again, the keyframes will help you quickly lay out the overall timing and motion of the object.
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When you do, the animation length will be rescaled. Notice that some of your keys are “offset” from the frame numbers. This is because the keys are based on time, and their new scaled time falls between two frames. This is why you want to save a backup of the animation in its unscaled state--working with “offset” keys is not easy. Of course, you could also animate from the start using the 21 frame length, if you prefer. Animation is a rather “personal-preference” sort of skill.
Exporting
With the animation finished, it’s time to export it. Unlike typical objects in rFactor 2, for animated objects you not only need to export the object itself, but also an animation file (.ANM). This is pretty easy to do; however, for some gameplay-related objects, such as the wiper, there are some naming conventions to adhere to.Open the GMT Converter from the Utilities tab and I’ll go over the wiper setup (other objects are VERY similar).
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To export the object itself, you are free to use whatever settings you deem necessary; however, you should be sure “Move”, “Deform” and “Fix Bone Names” are all checked. These are located in the exporter’s “Object” panel.
Conclusion
It seems a lot to take in; and honestly, it is. Animation is NOT easy; and not everyone can do it (especially where character animation is concerned). Professional animators spend their entire careers perfecting their skill in just this one area. However, with some practice, it’s easy to pick up the basics; and they are easily applied to the types of mechanical animations you’d expect to encounter for things such as wipers in rFactor 2. With that, I do hope this general animation tutorial, with a focus on windshield wipers, will help get you started with a solid footing.
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