Synchronize Wheel Rotation With a Track System in C4D

Ever wonder how to sync wheel rotation with a track system, like a conveyor belt to tank tracks? Well, in Cinema 4D it’s a matter of using the Mograph Cloner, Xpresso, and some maths.

Ever wonder how to sync wheel rotation with a track system?

Shane Benson covers one method for syncing wheel rotations with a track system, where the concepts covered can be useful for a lot of different tasks.

The mograph cloner makes it easy to create the belt or track system, then it is just a matter of having all the wheels work with the track system, so it all works together.

Aniline the wheels and the track by hand is a bigger job than it looks. There needs to be an automated solution. Using both a line for the tracks and wheels, you can then get the length for both those splines and with Xpresso, divide the length of the track by the wheel spline length. Then adding a rotation value, and dividing that output thrown into a range mapper, and you are pretty much done. Even though you are working with a bit of math, Xpresso makes it really easy with the Math nodes.

More Resources for Creating Track Systems

It was almost 2 years ago, when Chris Cousins showed off his process for his “Pixellation” animation, which shows a conveyor belt setup, using Dynamics and spring connectors roughly 1:08-1:24 in.

Although not technically a track setup, but still in the Dynamics realm, HelloLuxx’s Tim Clapham had a look at creating the conveyor system with a Dynamic Cylinder which is kept in its place with a Hinge Connector.