Animating Forklift Truck

[web-individual]

Hey Guys,
i am wondering if anybody animated driving forklift trucks in a warehouse.
I have to animate a whole warehouse with several forklift trucks.
the lifting action is no problem since a rigged the trucks with xpresso.

my issue is that I would like to animate them with an "align to spline" tag to follow certain tracks.
the forklift drives towards the rack, grabs the load and is heading back again. when I use align to spline the truck always flips 180 deg. when I move it back.

is there a way to animate the truck back and forth without flipping or changing the heading?
so you have other ideas to animate ist.

I tried I with motion path but they take a lot of time to make them look realistic.

cheer

Basti

[Dr. Sassi]

Hi Basti,

Please have a look here:
CV4_2024_drs_24_ANsr_01.c4d

The missing element might be the Rail-spline. Since I don't have a project file from you, I'll start with an example to find what you need.

Growing up in a construction company, riding a Forklift was surely a frequent chore. Forklifts behave differently than cars. If you need that in the animation, please let me know.

All the best

[web-individual]

Hey Dr. Sassi, thanks you for your quick response.
I attached a demo file.
I hope that makes my problem clearer.

In this animation the forklift drives backwards to align the forks to the load. when he travels toward the load he turns around. C4D wise this makes sense, because the object is always aligning to the spline and looking forward.

But I am looking for a efficient way to draw some tracks for my trucks and let the drive and pick up loads.

Hope I made myself clearer. Sorry for this confusion.

Basti
.
forklift dummy.c4d

[Dr. Sassi]

Hi Basti, thanks for the file.

Typically, the flip 180º is upside down-wise. Hence, the file clears that up.
This is a good example of why I typically ask for a file. It communicates better. Whether the file that is sent back works or not, we have a base to move on quickly.

Please have a look at the three files below.

The first one (…01.c4d) uses the Spline as is and introduces a Null to take the rotation correction.
The Null is useful anyway. If the model needs to be swapped out, it's less trouble, and it's even better to have more Nulls.
CV4_2024_drs_24_ANfl_01.c4d
The problem with this setup is that it will render Motion Blur incorrectly, as it has some 180º "flips", which motion blurs a lot.

.
The second file (…11.c4d) uses the Spline. There are three copies, each just the part needed. Segment 0 is untouched. Segments 1 and 2 are Spline> Point Order> Sequence Reversed. Then, Object Manager> Object> Connect.
The Align to Spline Tag has an option to use Segments.
CV4_2024_drs_24_ANfl_11.c4d
The advantage here is that the setup is faster if a Rail spline is needed.

.
The third file (…21.c4d) uses the three Segments as separate objects, animating the Spline Path field instead of the Segment Field.
CV4_2024_drs_24_ANfl_21.c4d
I hope you will find one suggestion that fits your style of animating.

Let me know if you have any questions. I'm happy to look into it.

My best wishes for your project