Blender Tank Tracks Tutorial | Modeling & Rigging | Constraints (Arijan)

[@Devinci297]

As a former tank mechanic I knew exactly how many track segments you would need! haha! This brings back some memories!

[@mikek9297]

So... how many are there ? Asking for a friend ;)

[@Devinci297]

@@mikek9297 exactly the number he got in the video.

[@mikek9297]

@@Devinci297 Neat !

[@jsmadesimple9216]

That must have been a really interesting job. As a mechanical engineer undergrad I too would love to work with tanks. :)

[@Devinci297]

@@jsmadesimple9216 Cool. I'm now going to school for Aerospace engineering as my 2nd Bachelors!

[@anuph2826]

Mann i was so feared of modelling a tank and animating it . You made it sound so simple 👏. Keep it up to the good work

[@ArijanRace]

It seems like rocket science but it really isn't. Thank you for the comment

[@juskaran]

You, my friend are a life saver. I have improved so much in the past few month after watching your tutorials, I did not progress much for the past 1 year after watching and buying those costly courses from those fancy ads on IG and other websites. God bless you brother thank you so much

[@ArijanRace]

I learned everything I know from the internet for free. Courses can be great to assist you but they are definitely not necessary

[@berkutl0ve]

at 9:00 you need to set map from rotation -> Y max 1 map to location -> x source axis = Y max -11 or whatever number u like as it will define the speed of movement & Y source axis Y , and you need to apply rotation

[@Rhen5656]

for rotating + copying you can press alt+D (or shift+d if you dont want link them linked) -> R -> X,Y or Z -> 15 (or whatever angle you want) -> enter -> shift+R to duplicate previous actions. This makes it so you don't have to manually repeat the same action multiple times. note that in edit mode it only works with shift+D.

[@martinlehtla5055]

Thank you this is really helpful

[@TheRealZanyBroz]

When ever I try this it just rotates the duplicate in place. How do I stop that and rotate the verticies around the center

[@Smooth_Shading]

Dang dude! This was amazing. This has been a challenge I was unable to solve until I saw this video. You covered some complicated issues and made them simple to solve with math and logic. You broke the modeling down in a way that I think will really help people see that modeling can be a lot simpler than it might seem at first. And you did this all efficiently! The editing and narration was clean and to-the-point. All around, just really well-put-together material man. Glad I found your channel. Keep up the great work!

[@ArijanRace]

Thank you, your comment & feedback mean a lot!

[@domenicocozzolino1831]

Good tutorial! You can use the FIT CURVE option in the array modifier so that it automatically uses the right amount of objects

[@ArijanRace]

Didn't know that, thank you!

[@josipcuric8767]

@@ArijanRace for some reason fit curve doesn't take offset into account so it's basically useless

[@weightednormal3682]

@@josipcuric8767 You can use fit curve with offsets.

[@DonTouch]

Edit: Before you write a comment angrily saying the tutorial is bad you should learn a bit of the basics first! ♨️This is not a tutorial for beginners!♨️ Thank you Arijan for the effort you put in! ❤

[@ArijanRace]

It is not a beginner tutorial.

[@DonTouch]

I Apologize for my previous comment, Your tutorial is good! you just need to already know a bit to follow along. Will be improving my skills until I am able to succeed. Thanks for putting in effort.

[@ArijanRace]

@@DonTouch thank you, let me know if there's something I can help with.

[@randleman3449]

Bro thanks so much! I made the hull of a Tiger II and had no idea how I should even begin with the tracks.

[@ArijanRace]

Thats awesome. I have an old video where I made a Tiger II. It's not really a tutorial but maybe you can get some ideas

[@Valet_Kresti]

Amazing work you made, man. As a junior programmer I advice you don't forget lubricate the truck pins every 50 SMR.

[@Gr3nMaster]

I see now! Array modifier and curve! It's so simple! Thanks, Aryan!

[@SabotAndHeat75]

The little links are made up of cooling tubes, end connecters and center guides. 2:56 Excellent job, BTW.

[@ArijanRace]

! IMPORTANT UPDATE ! At 9:00, the track constraint is wrong. Do this, if your track is aligned with the Y Axis: Map From -> Rotation X Max 1 Map To -> Location Set Y Source Axis to X Max to -11 Download this model on ArtStation: shorturl.at/efzDF

[@mikek9297]

Before watching : Oh, cool... let's see how complicated this really is After watching : Fuck it, let's make a TANK !

[@bushbushchickhon]

I tried, but the track deforms when I rotate it than

[@SuperRunescapemad]

can you help me im trying to get my sprocket to rotate with the sphere but when i do it just disaprears from view till i go back then it pops back in orinal space

[@bushbushchickhon]

@@SuperRunescapemad I had the same, but I fucked around for so long I dont remember how I fixed it it was something with the rotation to location value tho instead of changing (For example) X to Y, I changed Y to X if you follow, but just try to fuck around with the settings, you'll figure it out eventually

[@SuperRunescapemad]

i need help i cant seem to get the curve to parent to the tank hull. when i do it doesnt move with it do u know whats needs fixing ?

[@anonymussy123]

This is easily one of the best done tutorials I've ever seen. Insanely good quality.

[@gabytheanim4339]

And this is what i need thank you! This is incredibly useful.

[@WaterZer0]

If you are following this with a more recent version; and your tracks leave the path, select the path and object data parameters (green curve icon) then expand active spline and check the "cyclic" box. I'm guessing on older versions this was checked by default.

[@Dea_d_island]

if anyone hast the problem, that if you spin the empty speher at 9:00 the track is exploding instead of spining set the the constraint as following: Target Worldspace Owner Worldspace (later if you set the Parents you can switch it back to local) Xmax 1 Y source x Max -11 and before that, close the Pathloop with selecting the first and last point and press F or shift F, i dont know anymore But yeah if it fixed it for you, upvote my comment so others can also see it (working on Blender 3.4.1) NOTE: This works only if the tank itself faces in the Y direction, if it faces in the x direction: i don t know how to set it XD , it seems so simple that you use the y rotation then and set the x transform to y but it doenst work somehow... good luck my guys XD (or just spin your tank 90 Degrees so its facing Y)

[@ThePaddyfro]

Yeah ran into same issue, weird no pinned comment advsing of potiential issues and fixes. threads flying off everywhere and sliding along x axis similar settings Constraint: transformation Target:Sphere Extrapolite: ticked Target: Wolrd Space Owner: World space Map from: ->Rotation X Mac: 1 Map To: ->Location X source Axis: Y Max -11 Y source Axis: X Max -11

[@zenarch8618]

what do you mean close the pathloop

[@DeadZoneCustoms]

BRUH TY! ive been teaching myself blender for the last couple of months and my end goal was to build a tank - this helps me further into achieving that goal!

[@hanitouati]

what an amazing tutorial am not a rigger or neither this is some work i do but i stayed till the end cuz its basically amazing the way you explain and the work thanks i will be waiting for more

[@ArijanRace]

Thank you, I'm glad you liked it. Definitely more coming

[@rudypieplenbosch6752]

This is the best track tutorial I have seen, explaining the transformations was very useful, it seems to be some kind of inverse kinematics for tracks ! I definitely want to create a track, just for the fun of it, thanks man.

[@skykid1075]

The best for all years video ! Thanks

[@NUCLEARxREDACTED]

Wow, Best tank track tutorial on youtube. By far.

[@mwparker1969]

You are an INCREDIBLE modeler in blender. Amazing!

[@djmnx01]

Insanely good tutorial. I'm going to go lie down now to let it settle in . . . .

[@claudedebussy2208]

another awesome Blender technician

[@samarmitage9993]

Wow great stuff initially when I started blender it was a bit hard for me to follow along but came back to this after a year and I made it now I have a tank that is all rigged up. Great tutorial, thanks!!

[@ArijanRace]

It's nice to hear you came back and that this helped. Thank you and keep it up.

[@cubixmovie]

That's amazing, many thanks for that tutorial! Only one thing, with the SPHERE which controls the movement of the chain, and the rotation of the wheels: I would prefer to use a rotation range in the Transformation Constraint of -180° to 180°, instead of 0° to 1°. That makes the control with a rotation more natural. I made the sphere the same size as the ground wheels, so that I could take the rotation angle 1:1 for these wheels. For smaller or larger wheels, there is some calculation required to set the correct "Map To" rotation.

[@CG_MIGHTY]

One of the most realistic tank machanic on youtube. If you show how to simulate it on the mountain road => You will be the best tanker :))

[@kritiranjan5205]

This was so helpful man ...thanks a lot ...I was able to apply similar techniques to rig tracks using an armature. It works perfectly. Thanks a lot man

[@teddyhansen3658]

you might say its not rocket science. alot of stuff to remember, and you have a lot of numbers you throw out that i bet varie depending on size. but having said that, its a real nice tutorial taking it step by step. Defenetly worth checking out :)

[@ArijanRace]

Thanks for the sjpport. I completely understand that perspective. In fact, constraints are rather new to me as well. Regardless, after practicing this once or twice you can get the hang of it and it becomes a piece of cake, as most other things.

[@teddyhansen3658]

@@ArijanRace well thanks for taking your time to make this tutorial . good stuff to have when in need. cant keep track of everything in my head. so nice with a library to go to when in doubt

[@ArijanRace]

Awesome, I hope to see u around!

[@ShockwaveStu]

I`m sure he said its not Sprocket science?

[@DerCribben]

It's crazy how many people in the comments look at this tutorial and think "Ok, I just downloaded Blender for the first time...THIS is the tutorial I'm going to start my Blender journey on..." and then proceed to troll you for not explaining things like how to set transform orientations and pivot points. Great tutorial, any possibility you could share links to your references? I've got a couple decent blueprints but your refs are way better than the ones I've found so far.

[@salvadormarley]

This is not a tutorial for beginners. I'd say it's for pretty advanced users. The amount of experience you'd need to know to be able to even try and follow along is huge.

[@darkscorpion6534]

Jesus this is one Incredible Tutorial!!!!

[@HieuNguyen-yb8gq]

WOW this is the channel i need, thank you

[@InfraredVisuals]

I recently discovered your channel while searching for reference blueprints. I was always interested in learning more about these complex modeling & rigging techniques but finding the contents for these sorts of things ain't that common. I was digging into your channel more to see the stuff you've worked on. Thanks for sharing the insights mate. :)

[@ArijanRace]

Thank you for your comment, let me know if there's something specific you'd like to see.

[@gamerslobyt6680]

@@ArijanRace how can i create Helicopter dust when it Lands or car dust when they drift

[@KorbinBaldridge-b2x]

You might already know this, but u can type math expressions into value bars. So instead of 32.727272 which is still technically slightly offset, u can put 360/11. Hope this helps!

[@tomar666]

I've made M1A2 10y ago, and tracks was my nightmare, "TANK" you ;)

[@ArijanRace]

All tank tracks are more or less the same. Once you get the hang of it, they're the easiest part to make. Glad to help!

[@gustavadolfsson7499]

Great work. This will come in handy when i remake my old WallE model. I never figured out how to make the tracks right.

[@sleeverhawk6070]

Thanks buddy for this video. It is so useful. Rigging a tank becomes so easier after watching your videos. Thanks once again!!!

[@Jetpower485]

Wow that was concise! You've earned my sub!

[@davestomper3428]

Great and quick to the point I dont need to make a tank but very well done as far as tutorials goes and the tracks look amazing man.

[@danielrugu]

Saved my life! thank you Arijan

[@VladMihailescu]

Best video out there on this topic, great job !

[@3depthz868]

12:31 for someone who can't make it, check the "extarapolate" on sphere constraint. Mine doesn't work at first, and i try to figure it out why for almost 10 minutes maybe.. and it's very frustrating

[@Artem-rg3dk]

didn't help(

[@DesignInsightofficial]

Love ur work bro ❤

[@ArijanRace]

Thank you my friend

[@lln6123]

SOLUTIONS TO SOME PROBLEMS 1. If you have a problem with the Tracks when turning then driving again: Change following Constrains (Empty Sphere) Set the Target from Hull to a new individual all-in-one empty (e.g. Plain Axis which you parent to the Hull) + Change Target also to Local Space 2. If you have problems with lagging Tracks + Wheels (both change constantly rotating direction while moving the Tank) Change following Constrains (Wheels + Tracks) Set the Target to Local Space

[@ArijanRace]

Thank you for this!

[@lln6123]

@@ArijanRace I have to, great Tutorial, thats exactly what I needed

[@budderball29]

that's giving me some issues when turning

[@abelgomezny]

Awesome tutorial! Thanks for sharing!

[@HarryAli]

Dude, you just saved my life!

[@ugurbaturgames]

i was looking for the turning animation, thanks!

[@Muhammadrizwan6677-v9g]

You are doing good brother

[@marcelomolina5005]

Perfect Tutorial! Thanks!!

[@Takolato]

thanks men all 50 try and 5 days i finally resolvet it

[@prasadsawant4153]

Thank you so much❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@Calling_a_closure]

Excellent guide, thanks a lot. You are the best.

[@michaelsmusicinstruments9980]

great example, i will try this for another object. thank you sir

[@popchen3598]

after 12:31 when i parent with the tank when i move forward in y axis the tracks is not rotating

[@xovolovov2483]

Great video man really usefull.

[@popchen3598]

I've also created a constrains for the empty sphere Loc to Rot

[@신동규-p6s]

Soooooo talented👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[@tcheadriano]

Really great tut!!!

[@bennettwallter8593]

Awsome Tutorial! Only one question left, how can i pitch the tank without moving the tracks, for example on an hill?

[@ArijanRace]

The solution seems to be to have the tank rotate without rotating the sphere. Perhaps it would make more sense to unparent the rig from the tank, since the location of the rig doesn't really matter. To avoid any side effects, here's an idea: A constraint which correlates the movement of the sphere with the movement of the tank, but does not correlate pitch movement. This way when the tank pitches, the sphere does not. I'm responding to this from the driver seat of my student job, I can try to make another constraint video sometime if you're interested.

[@mexyrexy5796]

great tutorial!

[@HAMODEMUSICdj]

Thanks man this really helpful

[@sideeffectsstudios]

Great job! Amazing!

[@charles3dart683]

So mutch talent:)

[@houkiboshiii]

12:28, the track and wheels didn't move at all when I move the hull. how to fix it?

[@БогданаКалашник-ъ7у]

I have the same. Did you manage to fix this problem?

[@GBusso]

This is great, thank you.

[@PanzerWulf]

Yes is good and everything BUT if i rotate the tank 90° and pushing forward then tank track moving reverse.

[@abultimatetanksimulator6605]

So basically after you rig this tank, you will export it in the game engine(for example Unreal Engine) and there you will control the constraints, then the tank will follow the instructions like in Blender.

[@ArijanRace]

Constraints do not work in unreal engine, as far as I know. Instead, one must animate the tank in blender and export the animations onto another program.

[@alexjones2141]

Awesome video! What PC specs are you running?

[@michalsvandrlik9689]

Hello, great tutorial. Just one question: do you know how to prevent individual track links bending around the idler/sprocket wheels? I would like to have the links straight and bends just in the joins. Regards. Michal

[@VoidGecko]

This worked for me: kzbin.info/www/bejne/opfRl6qoorKZgMU

[@MrKiraBR]

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!

[@fouadgfx1574]

this is so cool

[@marthjel]

Genius!

[@blenderbreath7119]

Question, when you modelled your tyres, did you join all those bolts, and parts to the main tyre? or parent them?

[@DestroyIT01]

nice one , interesting

[@BossBabyBestAnime]

I have a question regarding exporting this into a game engine. What needs to be done to have this rig/or animation working in, let's say, unreal?

[@ArijanRace]

I never used unreal and google says constraints don't work in unreal. I exported animations to unity and this is how it works: 1) you make an animation in blender, with the constraints if u want 2) you export the model and you export the animation as a separate file 3) you import both to unity and unity plays it when u tell it to I will make a video on how to animate, export to unity and script so you can use keyboard keys to play animations (such as R for reload animation)

[@suburban-mech2107]

@@ArijanRace How would you go about exporting the animation separately? And also Constraints don't tend to pass from blender to unity well. IS there a trick around this?

[@vasili1207]

cool , the animation part looks great. i am more interested in 3d printing with blender got any tricks? for accuracy

[@ArijanRace]

I only did 3d printing once so unfortunately I can't tell you much, but as far as I recall the models can't be very detailed when 3d printing.

[@vasili1207]

@@ArijanRace nah bro you can print them i done panther and tiger tracks @ 1/35th scale. with full detailed mesh . resin printers are a must but yeah its a thing

[@marcelovargasmansilla1369]

soo good bro thansk

[@rainoffire919]

Arijan:What when tank actually tank tracks don't go across some flat surface.So did we need some kind of rigidbody.I was try to use object constraint shrinkwrap but don't works very well or i just don't know to use it very well?Can you make video about this?

[@ArijanRace]

Physics rig coming soon, in fact I'm editing the video right now

[@rainoffire919]

@@ArijanRace Great tnx for that

[@ponemyintmyat6362]

Are you going to upload the tutorial about top parts. eg. turret, main gun etc.

[@ArijanRace]

Just uploaded how I make the turret and the gun, check that out if you're still interested. Hope it helps

[@ponemyintmyat6362]

@@ArijanRace Thanks

[@zaidsayyed5927]

Genius!

[@MikelRChannel]

Great Tutz!!!

[@sofm6891]

thank you!

[@taunado]

Nice. Shortcut key to fill in the blanks?

[@lb2571]

Can i bring the tank rigging in blender to unreal engine for animation? Thank for you awesome tutorials!

[@Dina_tankar_mina_ord]

very alaborate tutorial. well done and thanks.

[@fv4202x]

I think that is a rocket science

[@rayotoxi1509]

Question is there a way to like keep the roadwheels on the same position as the tank rotates I dont want to keyframe all the supension individual For example tank is moving fast and does a full break the tank natureally leans forward and there for the roadwheels with the tracks arent touching the ground Is there a way to automate this

[@CreediusMaximus]

So I'm lost in a billion ways but loving the tutorial none the less. Main issue I'm having is when trying to use the sphere to rotate the tracks. The tracks rotate till the end of the curve then they straighten out and go straight down that axis. Any help would be appreciated. Sorry for being a noob lmao !! Figured it out, you have to toggle cyclic in edit mode with the curve.

[@emucan95]

This video is amazing. Now my question is how to get this effect in Unity?

[@greatsol2444]

What’s the step just after you draw the curve and before you add the Array modifier and then the Curve modifier? You just inexplicably add some sort of modifier, I can’t see it because it’s blurry.

[@sleepyjester5976]

Thanks now i can finally make the chainsaw blades move like they should .

[@adamsharp7575]

Can you do a tutoriel to control the wheels vertical position and the track go to follow. That wway we could animate it over rought torrain. It would be a good part 2 ????

[@ArijanRace]

This is a much more advanced rig setup that requires physics. I am very interested in learning it myself but it will take me some time

[@WoodysFx]

you can use the default constraints and some parenting to create the behavior of tank treads deforming over uneven ground. in production we don't use physics because they are not easy to control, and not reliable. when rigging, it is important to give the user as much control as possible. dynamic simulations are used to mimic dynamic and chaotic behaviors like explosions, destruction, etc...

[@RainbowSheep192]

Stumbled upon this tutorial/guide while seeing if there’s any modders working on functional treads for SnowRunner, seems like this should work, but would need to figure out how to prevent them derailing which is the main issue existing mods have.

[@egors8730]

Thanks for the greats tutorial but it’s a lot easier to do the curve for the traks by a circle and a shrink wrap modifier and then converte to curve

[@re57k]

Just yesterday I experimented with tank tracks, and look what appeared on my recommendation today! Nice video btw Edit: also, why didn't you use "copy rotation" constraints for the road wheels?

[@ArijanRace]

Glad to hrlp. I wasn't even aware of the existence of this constraint, thanks for sharing!

[@LuftWaffles9966]

Can you make a updated version since everytime i try to do anything with the tracks it just ends up deforming or the sprocket goes somewhere unseen.

[@Timelessvisuals-c9n]

To anyone who is struggling to connect 2 end of the curve …select both ends and press F

[@fodimania]

for some reason transformation constraint doesn't work at all for me. I followed closely every step but the empty sphere is just not working. I tried playing with different axis but still nothing. who knows what the hell is wrong, probably I messed something at early stages.

[@ilia1350]

ok, got it. His axis are 90 out. His tracks are moving along Y, so if your track lies along X - change axis in the 'transformation from/to' fields.

[@ArijanRace]

There is a mistake in the video, check my pinned comment. Hope that helps but let me know if there's still trouble!

[@ShockwaveStu]

Same here, followed along, tried the new `fix` but getting all kinds of weird things happening :(

[@Promethean_NZ]

@@ArijanRace I've followed through with both video and so far 3 different types of "fixes" I have seen in the comment section but have failed to find a true fix thus far. When going through each axis it will either expand the tracks outwards or move them sideways away from where they should be.

[@dylanmercergo7853]

So, the steering of this tank is meant for tanks with a special config of neutral steering. Could you do the same concept but with the Tiger? Like when it steers to the direction you want to, the second track will stop then vice versa. Cause my Sherman Firefly ain't gonna look right with modern-looking neutral steering. Thanks.