Plane Animation

This is the final series in A6M3 World War Plane tutorial. After modeling and texturing, now we are going to create simple animation, making this plane fly. You will use Path Animation technique, which means making an object move along a path. People usually use Path Animation to create walkthrough animation in architectural design. No doubt, it is the-must-mastered animation technique. You can continue your previous tutorial or you can download textured A6M3 WW2 Plane 3D model here

1. First, we need to animate propeller. Select propeller. Activate Select And Rotate tool. Turn on Auto Key. Move slider to frame 3. Then, enter -180 in the bottom of the screen to rotate propeller along Y axis. You will have 2 keyframe in frame 0 and 3. When finished turn off Auto Key.

2. Now, we are only animate propeller in the first 3 frame. You need to animate the rest of the frames. Right click propeller object in viewport and choose Curve Editor. A window will be opened. Click Param Curve Out-of-Range Types button. Another small window will be opened for you. Select Relative Repeat and click OK. Close Curve Editor window. Scrub slider and watch propeller rotates until the last frame. Explanation about this step can be read in Repetitive Animation tutorial.

Propeller animation is finished. Next step is to animate the plane as a whole. 3. Notice that propeller and body is two separate object. You need to make them as one object. We can make them as group. In viewport select those two object. In main menu, select Group>Group. In opened dialog box, name the group.

4. Next step, let's create the animation path. The path is created using line. In Command Panel, click Create>Shapes icon. In Object Type choose Line. In Creation Method rollout, set Initial Type=Smooth and Drag Type=Bezier. Then, draw a curvy line in Top viewport. Right click to finish drawing line. The plane will fly from start point, where your line begins and end to end point, where your line stops. For example, I draw the line like image below. You can create your own line, any shape you like.

5. Optional: You can add a camera, set your own view, setup lights. This is my camera view.

6. Select, grouped plane object. In Command Panel, activate Motion tab (wheel icon). Open Assign Controller rollout. Select second line in the stack (Position: Position XYZ) Then, Assign Controller button (small button on top). When a small window opened, choose Path Constraint and click OK. Now, Position XYZ is changed into Path Contraint. You'll have Path Parameters opened. Now, we need to define a path. In Path Parameters rollout, click Add Path button. Then, click your previous created line in viewport. After you define a path, 3dsmax will create two keyframe in first and end frame in your slider. Play animation, now plane is moving along path. Next, we are going to fixed plane's orientation. Activate Follow option. This time, the plane is rotating while moving. But, the orientation is still a mess. Don't worry, next step is going to fix that.

7. Activate Select and Rotate tool. In Top viewport, rotate plane in order to make its orientation is the same with the beginning of the path. Scrub slider, plane will have the right orientation now. .

8. To enhance the animation, activate Bank option. This option will make the plane 'swing' when turning. Image below shows the difference. Top image shows Bank option off, and bottom image with Bank option on. You can set how much the plane banking by filling Bank Amount and Smoothness value..

9. Last step, we can add motion blur. Plane is moving very fast, so we need to add blurry effect. In viewport, right click plane object group, and choose Properties.Activate Image in Motion Blur option. Click OK.

10. A6M3 World War 2 Plane animation is finished. Add a background and render the result..