recent work in 1.5 *Updated with Animation*

[Syclone1]

nice work I like it

-dave

[MHenry]

Very Nice Render!

[posterus]

animation added:
http://www.joepizzini.com/VRAY/Tractor/tractor.html

[tom182]

sweet,
Is that just a photo + shadow plane

what controller did you use for the wheels/steering?

great rendering /textures
Tom

[ene.xis]

and

oh...
hehe...its quite amazing!
id surely like to see how did u animated those mechanical rotating arms on the last shot!
Gr8 stuff!

[instinct]

great stuff, two things irritate me tho. First it seems to slide quite a bit when turning...am also not sure if rotational speed for the wheels is correct during the turn. And secondly the Tires arent deformed in any way. Other then that...kickass

Thorsten

[dlparisi]

No sound?! Looks great.

[posterus]

Thanks folks.

@Thornsten
I definately agree about the sliding. Whats the best way to animate a vehicle? I put the tractor on a path but it still slides. Maybe adjust the pivot point or something? I just eyballed the rotaion of the tires. Is there any fast tricks to getting that right...other than busting out a calculator?

@ene.xis
i had to get help from a co-worker on the motions of the u-joint. for awhile i just couldn't wrap my head around the action of the joint. it was done with a bunch of linked rotations along with dummys. IK wasn't used.

@tom182
the front tires are linked to the main tractor group. also the the front tires are linked to individual dummys which control steering rotation (z axis) those dummys are linked to the main tractor group. main tractor group is animated along a path.

the shadow for the tractor on the ground is not from a matte object. it is an opacity map. i was getting severe flickering when using a matte object. so, there is a rectangular plane about 30% larger than the overall footprint of the tractor with a black vraymat assigned to it centered on the tractor and it is just below the bottom of all the wheels. it is 85% visible to camera
this way it completely eleminates the flickering. the opacity map was made by rendering a top view of just the shadows, then i inverted it and added more contrast.
just barely above the shadow ground plane there is another similar plane with a tan mat on it to simulate the dirt (for light bounces) this plane and its shadows are invisible to the camera.
opacity map described above:

[instinct]

we usually put up full vehicle rigs for animation stuff. What TYPE of rig is changing a lot due to the different needs of different projects and the personal preference of the rigger :P There are expressions out there to autorotate the wheels based on distance traveled. that doesnt really work in hard turns tho. Going along a path will almost always lead to sliding (unless it=s a straight line :P) because due to the way car's steer their rotational pivot is actually shifting when steering. To put a long story short...it's a bitch

Thorsten

[Syclone1]

even with the sliding it still rocks good job buddy

-dave

[jonnybefree]

hey KITT, its you.......?

really nice!!

[Mathew Everett]

this is freaking awesome! the detail is 100% right on good work

[DaForce]

WOW... really good!!!

Although the shadows in the first bit doesnt sit right with me.. but still like you said you had flickering with real shadows.
That universal joint setup looks pretty sweet. Ive always wonderd how to tackle something like that.

[Dman3d]

Very good

[Dynedain]

nicely done! I find it very disturbing to watch without an operator though... after you fix the sliding, it would really help if you comped in some dust around the tires