Car Rig Troubleshooting

[fordmar]

I want to create a camera rig that can track an arrow moving along a spline (sample movie in link below). The primary object is for the camera to anticipate the curves before the arrow gets to it, so the camera "leans in" to the turn before it actually happens. The rig I used in the movie sample is too hard to control for repeated use. So I thought it might be simpler to attach a camera to a car rig that's following a few steps behind a target, and track the arrow that way. The steering action of the car would help smooth out the motion around the curves - not swing so wildly. I had an old car rig from a previous project a while back that I figured I could re-jigger to work for this. But something went wrong.

Project link here:
https://shared-assets.adobe.com/link/854726d0-25dd-453a-7739-fbbb42708943

Everything worked as expected in isolation, but when I put the car rig and the arrow model together, things got whacky. The align-to-spline/splinewrap tags won't sync up - the arrow takes off much faster than the car, and then for some odd reason, gets shorter and shorter the further along the spline it goes. Most surprising there's a second car model controlling the motions of the car rig - but it's going in the opposite direction. What genius set that up?

I'm wondering if I've got colliding controllers buried in the rigging somewhere that would account for the odd behaviors in acceleration and tracking - and the ghost car.

Maybe the car rig is all wrong for this - in which case the sooner I know that, the better

[Dr. Sassi]

Hi fordmar,

How about making it much simpler than that?

Having had my fair share of racing discussions with drivers I supported as a mechanic or photographer, I'm familiar with Ideal-Line, which is an optimal path along a racetrack. One goes a little bit on the opposite side first to widen the curve radius, then gently breaks more and more and tightens the radius while accelerating, leaving the curve.

Below is a simplified version of that. But it is the fastest version. Just the swinging that one might expect. Note that cars do the opposite, while the driver often counters that move with the head. So it is a discussion of what view is provided. Motorcycles do the opposite. So, I understand that the ideas about this are split.
https://stcineversityprod02.blob.core.windows.net/$web/Cineversity_Forum_Support/2023_PROJECTS_DRS/20230330_CV4_2023_drs_23_ANct_11.c4d.zip

If the opposite is needed, drag the blue Spline below and adjust the camera accordingly.

I have copied one of the Splines that describe the path and set it to B-Spline while placing it higher.
This is used in a new Camera Rig as a Rail Path (Tangential is on).
The Interpolation "Number" for all splines has been increased to 24 points to make it smoother.

I have placed a cube as a child on the camera to showcase the new motion more clearly. This object can be deleted.
Adjust the 'blue" Spline as needed.

My best wishes for your project