Cinema 4D Tutorial - Xpresso - Conveyor/Track Wheel Sync

Ever wonder how to sync wheel rotation with a track system? I go over one way to do it using xpresso.

[@joaquimcraveiro7991]

More complicated than I thought . Thank you for that great tutorial .

[@thebeststooge]

I left C4D a couple of years ago (left all of 3d actually) but I never know when your help I will need again so I stay subbed. Great work.

[@ShepperdOneill]

If you don't mind me asking, why did you leave all of 3D? I have thought about moving over to another 3D package (maybe Maya), but most of my clients use C4D, so it looks like ill be staying with C4D, even if I start learning another package.

[@thebeststooge]

ShepperdOneill Well, I just lost interest in it. I still use 3d but I am more into solid modeling as I am more of an engineer than artist anyway. I liked Maya over C4D but that was the Alias Wavefront Maya not the Autocad version which I tried several times over the years (even a month ago on their latest version) and I can't stomach it. If Solidworks and C4D had a child and combined the best of each I would be in heaven but polygon modeling is just not for me. Too many issues with it and when I want to 3d print it I get reminded why I dislike triangles, lol.

[@ShepperdOneill]

Do you have a 3D printer? I was thinking about looking into that, as I have a ton of ideas that I would like to try and print, but from what ive seen on other channels, the modeling has to be clean, otherwise the print comes out looking like crap.

[@thebeststooge]

ShepperdOneill Actually it uses the STL format which is antiquated but lets say you have a model on the screen and it has 10 million polygons well, that is worthless and will end up with a non manifold part which will probably end up printing like crap if allowed at all. Lower the polygon count to less than 100k polygons and it would be fine. When I solid model I have to export it to STL and to get the best quality I dial in the exporter then leave it there for general purpose work. A ton of the models on thingiverse of artsy stuff need to be fixed with something like netfabb due to holes and not being manifold before you print. It is an epidemic with the model and so much so a lot of slicers now fix models when you load them and do a pretty good job. A lot has changed since 2012/2013 with 3d printing and it is still evolving into CMYKW printing (W is for white) so 16.8 million colors is within reach of being printed (true color). FDM process has its limitations and its faults but for knick knacks and bric-a-brac it is 100%

[@air_defender]

this tutorial make my day, very helpful!!

[@romanbruni]

nice ! used to create a 'bike track in the woods' and used all in your tutorial (to 3min). thanks ! cheers from Rio

[@DKIBUI]

It's really cool to see you back! I absolutely love your tutorials

[@ShepperdOneill]

Thanks! Im glad you like them! Hope to have more coming soon. =)

[@temporonaut]

Brilliance! Thank you!

[@EffingtonCouldBe]

You know you are doing something right when the thumbs up are 113 to zero! Nice tutorial, thanks!

[@MrNasserRadi]

A great tutorial,, many thanks

[@anglereserve]

Just what I needed

[@sonicsun1]

im stil stay tuned :) Nice that there is again a tutorial.

[@Maurice833]

You're back ! :)

[@ShepperdOneill]

Indeed I am! I really do gotta get back to making more tutorials! =)

[@Z4ckAtt4ck007]

Plz do!

[@Lureli777]

Muito bom! Bem explicado! Quem não curtiu é porque não conseguiu fazer.

[@alainbernard7711]

i've added a math multiply with a constant to increase the speed of the smallest pulley but it's not very clean.

[@XsizztEdits]

Hello there, I know it's an old tutorial, but would you mind explaining how you can bake all of this into a single object to later use it as an animation in Blender and Unity?

[@OlegTelepnyov605]

excellent!!!!

[@fnaffan1249]

Do you think you can do a tutorial for steam locomotive drive wheels on how to get the side rods to follow the wheel and move how theyre supposed to?

[@yewsoonfatt]

hi, i tried follow these steps. but why when i try to play, the conveyors just broke and falling apart? do i need to add some tag to the objects first?

[@ShepperdOneill]

They should not be falling apart. Did you put a dynamics tag on them?

[@alainbernard7711]

Thank you for the tutorial. I have a question. i try to use this xpresso for a volumetric compressor but i have some pulleys with differents size and the smaller size have a slow rotation compared to the first who drive the track path of the belt. how can i do ?

[@ShepperdOneill]

Were you able to resolve the problem? I may need to try it on my end to see if I can find the solution.

[@alainbernard7711]

@@ShepperdOneill Yes, as you can read in my second post. But it's not a clean solution, hard to adjust with accuracy.

[@ShepperdOneill]

@@alainbernard7711 Ok, I'm tied up with work right now, but when I get some time I will look into this and then make a short video tutorial on it.

[@alainbernard7711]

Thank you @@ShepperdOneill

[@sudeshprathap]

wowwwwwww

[@ModaAlin]

Great

[@paulzurbrugg]

Great tutorial! Definitely something that could have many applications. So, I was wondering: if you were to use this setup for a bulldozer/tank, is there a way to determine the ratio of the speed for each tread if the vehicle turns while moving?

[@ShepperdOneill]

At one time I had a tank track setup that did this, but it was using an old C4D plugin called Roll-it. Unfortunately, it no longer works with C4D. (You would have to have R10 in order to get it to work.) I may have to look into this further, and see if I can come up with a way to get it to work again.

[@paulzurbrugg]

Thanks for the reply! I've been pondering this a little more too; seems like the speed ratio between the treads could be converted from the angle of the turn/speed of travel. For instance, if you have the treads going the opposite direction at equal speed, the result would be the vehicle spinning around in one place. Not sure how to go about setting that up in xpresso, though.

[@ShepperdOneill]

I believe I have found a solution. I had to spend several hours last night digging around, and experimenting with xpresso setups, but I have put together a rig that works, even when rotating the tank. Once I test it out some more to make sure there are no bugs in it, I will put together a "part 2" tutorial for this track/tread system.

[@paulzurbrugg]

Awesome!! You really go above and beyond to help; it is very much appreciated! Thank you so much! I've been trying to learn Xpresso (along with a lot of other functions / concepts) for a while now, but it can be a little daunting sometimes. Your tuts have really helped me to learn new things, as well as reinforce/build on things I'm familiar with.

[@ddodo9344]

hi, thanks to yourtutorial. i'm trying with your tutorial now, but i have some questions about it... i'm trying to track stop smoothing...but when i change "track speed" '3' to '0'...but track doesn't stop like 3,2,1,0... it looks like 3,2,1,0,-1,-2,-1,0... which means track is more rotaion to minus... then i think it looks like F-curve problem, so i check about this, but i check not F-curve ploblem...now i can't handle this problem anymore...:< can you help me about this problems?

[@ShepperdOneill]

Can you send me the file?

[@ThePolygonPusher]

I'm rigging a character that has detachable parts and I'm wondering if there's a way to create an expresso to make an object target another to simulate an ik chain

[@ShepperdOneill]

Detachable parts on a character can be done with constraints (constraint tag). If you need an object to target another, you can use the target tag.

[@ThePolygonPusher]

Thanks alot, I'll use the constaints, I didn't want to use the target tag since I need to animate it detaching

[@ThePolygonPusher]

The constraint tag is working pretty well thanks

[@ShepperdOneill]

Welcome!

[@vusionvfx8947]

Hey great tutorial! Can you make a modeling tutorial for computer parts like graphics cards the new Geforce 1080 for example or other computer parts? That would be great, and it would be interssant to see. =) Greetings from Germany. cheers

[@jonatangronkvist1114]

Hi there! Thanks for a super tutorial, really easy to follow! I just have one thing.... That 180 rotate doesnt work. My cogwheels move forward and my track backwards. Tried to redo but still not working, any advice? Thank you!! best wishes from a cold Sweden!

[@ShepperdOneill]

Can you send me your file? I'll take a look at it.

[@jonatangronkvist1114]

Hi! Thanks, I'll give it a second try tonight...if it's not working I send it to you 😁👍

[@danielrc2810]

i have a question, How could I stop the movement of the wheels?

[@ShepperdOneill]

You should be able to keyframe the B rotation value to 0, and that will stop it. Is that what you're asking?

[@danielrc2810]

​@@ShepperdOneill Yes, I just wanted the transporter to stop without it going backwards, as if it had a slowdown to make it more realistic, although I already think I have it, but if you give me any advice, it would be very nice, thank you for responding, I loved the tutorial

[@lamarlowder]

Followed this step by step but I'm getting slipping. The wheel moves much slower than the track. Any ideas why this might be happening?

[@ShepperdOneill]

Any chance you can send me the scene file in a PM? I'll take a look at it for you.

[@lamarlowder]

Sent....

[@lamarlowder]

Got it. My Xpresso setup had driver on top and tack path second. I set track path first and driver second and that fixed it.

[@ShepperdOneill]

I was just getting ready to send you a quick message to explain that. Driver spline needed to be on the bottom. =) Glad you got it fixed!

[@lamarlowder]

Thanks buddy. Onto pt. 2!

[@MichalMjartan]

Hi men, I try to do this tut and I did same steps like U but my wheel is not synchronized with the track. Can I send U my project ?

[@ShepperdOneill]

Yes, PM me and send me your project and I will look at it.

[@kraphik3d]

useful thanks

[@koflin7213]

How can I rotate the elements of the track?

[@ShepperdOneill]

What do you mean?

[@koflin7213]

I managed to do it, I just had to rotate the elements on the Rail in the Transform tab.