mcjOvalRods - versatile morphable oval primitive prop - 16 LODs

mCasual

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────
----------------> https://sites.google.com/site/mcasualsdazscripts3/mcjovalrods
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────

16 props, same shape, different level of detail

each one with 6 morphs to change
length,
thickness,
external radius,
internal radius,
sharpness of the upper edge,
sharpness of the lower edge

20 material zones ( more work, but needed to give it full versatility )

-----

image 1 demostrates the well behaved texture mapping, animated with the help of my free matAnim script

--

there will also be a similar shape but round, to make shafts

( setting the length of this one to zero doesnt give exactly the same result )

mCasual

ready !

ThatGuy

thank you. You make the most useful props!

wancow

Casual, I'm looking at that animation, and the very first thing that came to mind was Catapiller/Tank treads...

mCasual

wancow said:

Casual, I'm looking at that animation, and the very first thing that came to mind was Catapiller/Tank treads...

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/20082/

and https://sites.google.com/site/mcasualsdazscripts/caterpillar-track-prop

wancow

OH, you have got to be kidding... that's... just... amazing...

JigSaw73

Hi. I don't understand how to use this for rigging/morphing a tank tread. I'd like to animate the Thor Tank that I have (or any other asset) so the tank treads animate correctly. I downloaded both the caternaimationposeandreadme.zip and caterprop.zip. I installed them in DAZ Studio and they are working fine for that included prop.

How do I transfer this morph to the Thor model or any other tank tread? I searched these forums and YouTube but I do not see any instructions yet (I'll keep looking, of course). Sorry, if it is obvious, I am missing it. So I apologize in advance.

Any help is appreciated. Thank you.

~angel

mCasual

in the case of the animation shown above, it's a renderer trick
a displacement map ( a level-of grays image ) was applied to the "displacement" channel of the mcjOvalRod surface
when rendered in Daz Studio's "software/3Delight" render mode
the white parts of that map/image are seen as bumps, the black parts are seen as depressions
then using matAnim script i animated the surface's "horizontal tiling offset"
so the bumps and depressions are seen sliding along the surface
------
on the other hand the caterpillar track found here
https://sites.google.com/site/mcasualsdazscripts/caterpillar-track-prop
is a "real" Poser prop with a morph channel (see in the daz studio parameter's tab )
by animating that setting the correct way, you get an animated track
the installation (zip) files also contain instructions and an animation

you could select your tank tracks, and make their opacity 0%, so they would be invisible
then parent the caterpillar tracks to your tank

----

taking your real tank tracks and making them behave like the caterpillar tracks would be more complicated

for example, using a minimum of 4 D-forms, you could make a morph that shifts your track precisely 1 tooth to the left
the teeth around the front and rear wheel/gears would also shift by that amount

once you have that, it's a matter of animating your D-Form strengths

------

to answer your question precisely, you cant transfer morphs from one prop to an entirely different prop
because a morph is a huge collection of vertex movements
to be applied to each one of the many vertices that define the prop

JigSaw73

Ok. First of all, thanks for the quick reply.

Secondly, I follow what your saying and it all makes sense. I appreciate the explanation and thank you for addressing my question directly. That is very helpful information. I'll decide how I want to approach animating the treads. Although using your caterpillar treads in place of the hidden tank treads is decidedly the most appealing approach at the moment! :-)

Thanks again for the info, the assets, and the resources!

~angel