roller coaster

[ignanacho]

I have a roller coaster that i need to animate. Does anybody have any ideas in how to do it?. I want it to follow a path, changing speeds. I'm doing it in 3dmax.

Thanks

[green1152]

yeah, make it follow a spline if you haven't already done it. There are some good tuts out there for that kind of stuff.

[Doofus]

Hiya.
Making things follow paths in max.
I'm guessing you just don't know where to look.

Got your roller coaster car and the spline you want it to follow?

If you select your roller coaster car, right-click it and go to track view for selected.
When track view opens, click the plus sign next to the car and do the same at transforms when it opens up some more.
Click on position and you should see an icon become available above (Assign Controller Icon). A green triangle with a small black arrow next to it.
Click the icon and in the Assign controller window that opens click Path Constraint and OK
Now you can close track view.
Click the motion tab (The little wheel) and about three blocks down you should see path parameters. In there click add path, then click your spline.

To change the speed and everything else just keyframe your way along the path using the % Along Path spinner.

Hope this helps. Should be close although I've written this from memory.