Blender-4.1/C3/Animating-the-Car/English
Title: Animating the Car
Author: Arthi Varadarajan
Keywords: blender 4.1, copy object, rotation effect, wheel animation, keyframes, light setup, car animation, render, video tutorial.
| Visual Cue | Narration |
| Slide Number 1
Title Slide |
Welcome to the Spoken tutorial on Animating the Car in Blender 4.1. |
| Slide Number 2
Learning Objectives |
In this tutorial, we will learn to
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| Slide Number 3
System and Software Requirements |
To record this tutorial, I am using
It is recommended to install Blender version 4.1 or higher. |
| Slide Number 4
Pre-requisites |
To follow this tutorial,
If not, please access the Blender tutorials on this website. |
| Open Car.blend file | Go to the Car-animation folder.
Open the Car.blend file. |
| Only narration | First we will add an Empty object to parent with the car and wheel.
This will make the animation easier. The Empty object will not be seen in the output. |
| Add menu >> Empty >> Plain axes | Press Shift and right click above the car to shift the 3D cursor.
Go to the Add menu. Select Empty, then click on the Plain axes. |
| Video Editor: S
Video Editor: numpad 7 |
Press S and scale up the object a little bit as shown.
Press numpad 7 to go to Top view. Press G and move the Empty object to the center of the car. |
| Video Editor: numpad 3
Select the car, wheel and the empty object Video Editor: Ctrl and P |
Press numpad 3 to go to Side view.
Select the car and the wheel and then the Empty object. Let us now parent them with the Empty object. Now press Ctrl and P keys together. Select Object from the shown menu. |
| Select the Empty object
Video Editor: G Video Editor: Ctrl and Z |
Now select only the Empty object. Press G and move the mouse.
Observe that the car takes the same movement of the empty object. Press Ctrl and Z to undo this action. |
| Select the wheel
Video Editor: N |
Next let us add a rotation effect to the wheel.
Select the wheel. Press N. The Side panel opens. |
| Rotation >> change the X & Z values to 90 >> Enter | In Rotation, change the X and Z values to 90. Press Enter. |
| Right click on the Y
Add Driver >> Expression to var * 3 |
Right click on the Y rotation value.
Click on Add Driver. A separate box opens. Change the value of Expression to var * 3. Now the wheel will rotate at the speed of 3. |
| Object field >> Empty
Type >> Y Location Video Editor: N |
Click on the Object field and change to Empty.
Change the Type option to Y Location. Press N again to close the Side panel. |
| Select the Empty object
Video Editor: G Video Editor: Y |
Now select the Empty object.
Press G and Y. Now move the mouse left and right. Observe that the wheel rotates as the car moves. |
| Video Editor: numpad 7
Video Editor: Z |
Next let us add the other 3 wheels. Select the front wheel.
Press numpad 7 to go to Top view. Press Z and select Wireframe. |
| Modifier properties >> Add modifier >> Generate >> Mirror | Go to Modifier properties. Click on Add modifier.
From Generate, select Mirror. |
| Mirror Object field >> Select Car | Click on the Mirror Object field. Select Empty.
Now the wheel is mirrored to the left side of the car. |
| Video Editor: Shift and D
Video Editor: G Video Editor: Y |
Let us now duplicate these wheels to the backside.
Press Shift and D keys together. Press G and Y and move them to the backside of the car. |
| Video Editor: Z | Press Z and select Material preview. Press Ctrl and S keys together to save the file. |
| Close the file
Open Road.blend file |
We will animate the car now on the road which we made earlier. Let us close this file.
Open Road.blend file. Let us make the curved road to straight road to make a simpler animation. |
| Select the bezier curve
Video Editor: X Click on Delete |
Select the bezier curve which is on the center of the road. Press X and Delete.
Now the curve disappeared and the effect is also gone. |
| Modifier properties >> Array modifier
Fit Type field >> Fixed count Change the Count to 50 |
Select the road. Go to Modifier properties.
In the Array modifier, click on the Fit Type field. Change it to Fixed count. Change the Count to 50. Press Enter. Observe that the road has become straight. |
| Video Editor: Ctrl and S | Press Ctrl and S keys together to save the file. |
| Video Editor: Ctrl and C | We will copy this road in the Car blender file.
Press Ctrl and C keys together. Close the File. |
| Open Car.blend file
Video Editor: Ctrl and V |
Open Car.blend file. Press Ctrl and V keys together to paste the road. |
| Video editor: R
Video editor: Z Video editor: 90 Video editor: S Video editor: X |
Let us rotate the road to match the direction of the car.
Press R, Z and 90. Press S and X to make the road a bit wider as shown. |
| Video editor: numpad 3
Select the Empty object Video editor: G |
Press numpad 3 to go to the Side view.
Select the Empty object. |
| Video editor: Z | Press G and move it on the right end of the road.
The wheels should be on the top of the road touching it. |
| Drag the double headed arrow >> Show Timeline | Go to the bottom of the 3D viewport. Drag the double headed arrow. This is the Timeline. |
| Hover on Timeline | Header of the Timeline has the play, pause and related buttons for animation.
Start denotes the starting frame number and End denotes the ending frame number. These can always be changed. |
| Hover on Playhead
Click and drag the playhead |
The blueline is the Playhead. This shows the current frame number.
As I click and drag the playhead, observe the change in the frame number. |
| Go to the zeroth frame | Let us start making the animation. Go to zeroth frame in the Timeline. |
| Zoom out
Video editor: I Go to the 250th frame |
Zoom out to get a clear view as shown. Keep the cursor on the 3D viewport.
Press I to insert a keyframe on the Timeline. Now go to the 250th frame. |
| Video editor: G
Video editor: Y |
Press G and Y. Move the car to the other end of the road.
Press I again to insert another keyframe. |
| Hold and drag the playhead | Hold and drag the playhead front and back to check the animation. |
| Only narration | Next, Let us adjust the light and camera now. |
| Light >> Properties >> Data
Sun >> Strength to 20 |
Select the Light. Go to Properties. Select Data. Click on Sun. Change the Strength to 20. Press Enter. |
| Video editor: numpad 0 | Let us now set the camera. Press numpad 0 to go Camera view. |
| Video editor: N
View Lock >> click on the Camera to View Video editor: N |
Press N to open the Side panel. Click on View.
Under View Lock, click on the Camera to View checkbox. Press N again to close the Side panel. |
| Move Navigation gizmo | Now use the Navigation gizmo. Move in different axes and zoom in to get the desired camera view. |
| Click on Properties >> Output | Next go to Properties. Click on Output.
Observe the resolution.These are the width and height of the output. For now, I will keep as it is. Let the Frame Rate be 24. |
| Output field >> Change to Desktop
Name as car-animation.avi |
In Output, click on the folder icon. Change the destination to Desktop.
In the bottom, enter the name as car-animation.avi. Click on Accept. |
| Change the File format to AVI RAW | Change the File format to AVI RAW. |
| Blender menu >> Render >> Render animation | Let us now render the animation.
Go to the Blender menu. Click on Render. Select Render animation. This may take some time depending on the computer’s performance. |
| Go to the Desktop | Now the render is completed. Let us check our animation. Go to the Desktop. |
| Play the animation | Right click on the animation.avi file. Play the animation using VLC Player.
Our Car animation looks like this. With this we have come to the end of this tutorial. |
| Slide Number 5
Summary |
Let’s summarize. In this tutorial, we learnt to
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| Slide number 6
Assignment |
As an assignment, please do the following.
Animate the jeep model which you made earlier. Your jeep animation should like this. |
| Slide number 7
About the Spoken Tutorial Project |
The video at the following link summarizes the Spoken Tutorial project.
Please download and watch it. |
| Slide number 8
Spoken Tutorial workshops |
The Spoken Tutorial Project team conducts workshops and gives certificates.
For more details, please write to us. |
| Slide number 9
Answers for THIS Spoken Tutorial |
Please post your timed queries in this forum. |
| Slide number 10
FOSSEE Forum |
For any general or technical questions on Blender, visit the FOSSEE forum and post your question. |
| Slide number 11
Acknowledgement |
The Spoken Tutorial project was established by the Ministry of Education, Government of India. |
| This is Arthi from IIT Bombay signing off.
Thanks for joining. |
