I have noticed two videos on youtube that show a tank with treads that are animated. Can anyone point me to how this would be done in Poser? I can find tutorials on creating this in Blender with rigging and curves - but I don't see how that exports to Poser.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions and help.

You can see the video here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obejMump47o

Hello hamiltonpl, In Poser, the main method to simulate tank track motion is repetitive morphing. It is also possible to move the track components around the track wheels. These method uses the Poser dependent parameters. Read Part 4 on my tutorial on Poser Dependent Parameter. See the section SEQUENTIAL MORPHING: Multiplicative Master design and tank track motion for the first method. The second method is explained in the section SEQUENTIAL ROTATION-TRANSLATION: Cable and pulley system. Here the cable is the track and the wheels are the pulley. I suggest to you the reading of all parts of the tutorial because you have to have a full understanding of the Poser dependent parameters. Here is the link to the tutorial. Part 4 of the tutorial Hope that this will help you Allstereo

these tank products have working tracks, perhaps if you analysed the cr2 it might give you some ideas.

https://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/pershing-m26-tank-for-poser-/88744/ https://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/panzer-iv-poser-obj-/53009/

The M1Abrams tank that comes with Poser has animated tracks too.

Wow I did not know that. Thanks. So, not knowing anything or very little about rigging - what would be the best way to deconstruct the rigging or learn how the wheels work with the treads? Thanks for your help I appreciate it.

And, i will look a the tut mentioned above. Thanks again!!

Allstereo: "See the section SEQUENTIAL MORPHING: Multiplicative Master design and tank track motion for the first method"

For my purposes this seems the simplest. But I cannot figure out where the MODEL is for the Tank Track. What if you wanted to construct from scratch? I am looking to build a tread very similar but with the top portion FLAT rather than DIPPED. Where is this controlled?

Okay so I am making progress. I took the morph example that works and looks like this:

Then, after export the treads as a Morph from POSER PRO 2012 - I imported it into BLENDER and modified the tread. I loaded the morph in POSER and gave it a value of 1.000:

But, when I use the "Track Mover" morph provided with the original model - the treads move but at the point the value is 1.0, 2.0, etc. a BULGE develops at the curves around the wheels:

I'm wondering what I am doing that creates this unusual morph? Running as an animating the "bulge" makes the treads bounce up and down on the front and rear. I would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks!

Hello HamiltonPL,

I think that you cannot use as such the model in the tutorial as a basis for your design. For me, the simple approach is to model the track in Blender taking care to define one group for each thread element of the track. To facilitate the rigging in Poser, it is better to model an unwrapped model of the track. You import the object file (Wavefront format) in Poser and you create a figure (Set up room) with each group assigned to a bone. Now, you will be able to bend the track as you want to have the original position of the track and the one step forward position (morph version). To create the morph version, you export the the modified track as a Wavefront object and after import the same as a morph target.

Take a look to my folding paper model in the tutorial (Section on SEQUENTIAL ROTATION, p 17). The unwrapped version of your track is like the form of the top upper left part of the figure 15, the morph version is like the the hexagonal form in the lower right part of the figure. Hope that you understand my explanation. I don't know your level of experience with Poser.

Allstereo

Thanks ALLSTEREO for you answering and your patience. I have used POSER for several years but have never rigged a figure from scratch. Dependencies are new to me but I am learning. I have dealt with MORPHS and I am learning BLENDER. I have the Track in BLENDER as I want it. In wireframe mode I can easily select individual tread elements but I am unsure how to define each as a group unless that means to "duplicate" each element so they each have a name - tread1, tread2, etc. If I export this to POSER I am guessing that I will need to retain polygroups so that when it comes into POSER - each tread is a different piece - correct? Does that mean then that each tread element would have a bone - which would mean I would have 40 bones with 40 treads? As you can see I am a newbie in this area. If there were a video explaining this rigging in Poser that would be great. I will also looke at the P17 in your manual. Thanks ALLSTEREO!

Okay, I get it - I think. I will create the track flat (unfolded). I can then bend the bones/segments to create the original track. I suppose we create a morph and call that original. Then I advance it one position and call that basic morph? Once I have this created are you suggesting that I look at the other TANK TRACK MORPH pz3 to create the dials and dependencies in order to make it move and appear to be rotating?

Hello hamiltonpl,

Yes, you got the process. In Poser, both versions (original and basic morph) should be save as Wavefront objects not as Morph Target. After that, you open a new scene in Poser and import the original version (This is your basic model). For this model, you load the "basic morph" as a morph target. Note that this is a Poser way to create the morph. Peoples that are good modeller create both versions in the Modelling application. If you provide to me your e-mail address via the Renderosity exchange mail , I will send to you a tutorial that Helgard provides to me about track moving. You can test my suggestion with my Folding paper model.

Allstereo

Thanks! Yes, it is hamiltonp@sbcglobal.net.

Are you saying that in BLENDER I can take the single tread and apply an array - and create the track there? Save as OBJ. Advance the array around a bezier circle one position and save that a the basic morph OBJ. Then, go back into POSER?

Hello, Yes, if you can do that in Blender, this is the best solution because you will not break the model. After that you apply the dependencies as explained in the tutorial. Check you mail, I will send the tutorial of Helgard.

Allstereo

Ok I have the POSER Scene with the original and the basic morph that moves it one step when I set the value to '1.000'. Now, my oh my, I have to set up the dependencies - this will be where it gets difficult for me.

Hello,

Bravo hamiltonpl. Very happy that you have reach the last step. Yes, it is not easy to set the dependencies, but try to set just one move and after you repeat the process up to 40 times if you don't understand the multiplicative design.

Allstereo