Need Help with Animating Overhead Garage Door

Turk_WLF

I’m trying to figure out how to animate a standard overhead Garage Door the rolls up. I could use some suggestions how to do it. I have tried using the Bi-fold concept but it’s not the result that I want.

Thanks,

MarcCCTx

Do you actually needed rolling up? There is a second garage door for the Dream Home already in the up position. LoRez sketch attached.

Otherwise, you would have to take the door apart and add bones and limits.

MarcCCTx

dupe post.

Stezza

I don't do animations but I would imagine the door would have to be modeled like a linked tank tread or linked bike chain so it can bend around the top whilst it opens and closes.

so using an animated system similar to tank tread should work... you just need to model the door accordingly...  then animate it 

other Carrara users who do animations will have better ideas.

Diomede

What Stezza said.

I only add that there was a plugin that might help, maybe.  If the door is a treated as a wide chain and the top of the doorframe a pulley, the plugin would animate the door.  

http://www.sparrowhawke3d.com/Sparrowhawke3DPlugins.html

WendyLuvsCatz

maybe make a long skinny cube (a slat) duplicate and move it down and keep going untill you have a door, 

parent one to the next

in animation set IK limits ball joint so they only rotate on the X axis and maybe about +/- 170°

lock the top one

then pull the end "bone" slat and  roll it up

once set can unlock the top one and unroll it along the timeline pulling the rest down locking it as you do then make an NLA clip to drive that action ( can be reversed sped up etc)

WendyLuvsCatz

LOL actually I have no bloody idea

Dartanbeck

My wife just pushes the button on the garage door opener ;)

WendyLuvsCatz

I am thinking the old cylinder and a lengthening plane trick

and untile the texture as it grows

Dartanbeck

Kidding. If you need it opening from the inside like that, but the model doesn't include appropriate morphs to make it happen, you could use VFX techniques to make it happen. Use a clean plate of the garage with no door, and another with the door closed. Animate the door as a simple plane going straight up until it reaches full height. Do another animation with the same plane turned horizontal coming at us along the upper tracks. It would then take VFX trickery to blend everything together using masks on each element to get the desired effect.

Better options might include:

Sound - The sound of a garage door opening will convince the audience that the garage door is opening, so you don't need to show the whole thing. This is a common filmmaker technique - maybe not for this, but...

In that case, you could set the camera so that we cannot see the ceiling as the bottom of the door begins to lift. Another angle might be shot showing the door above moving along the tracks - but it's just a simple plane. ILM and Weta Digital and all other VFX studios use these sorts of techniques. In fact, things like this is the reason why most VFX supervisors have someone from the studio during the film shoot, so that they can direct the Director on what can and cannot be done on the agreed upon budget.

Another great option is to do as Stezza and Diomede suggest above.

WendyLuvsCatz

my crappy idea and the plane and cylinder

DesertDude

Some cool ideas here everyone!

For this I used a Bend and Twist Modifier on the garage door with a Bend Angle set to 90 and the Limits set to 80 - 100%. Over four seconds I animated the Limits to 0 - 5%. I also tweaked the Hot Point and the Position slightly, but I don't fully understand what I did, lol, so I want to redo it so I can provide a clear explanation. I'm pressed for time at the moment but will be back this evening with more detail once I figure out why I had to do it that way.

 

Turk_WLF

I have looked into both "Tracks and Chains Package" and "The Belt Drive" Plug-ins, while both solve part of the problem, they don't work because they both have full loop "The Belt & the Tracks" for the door.

DesertDude

Not sure if this is useful at all as a solution but here are the basic steps I took:

In the vertex modeler I made a simple track shape using the points from 1/4 of a disc, then connected to more points one at the vertical base and one for the horizontal end part of the track. I extruded that polyline and added a bit of thickness. I then added a simple box for a door and scaled it to 'fit' the tracks, then broke out the object into two parts - the door and the tracks.

 

To the door I added the Bend and Twist Modifier, set the Bend Angle to 90 and set initial Limits to 90 - 100.

 

 

At the 4 second mark I changed to Limits to 0 - 20.

 

 

If you test the animation at this stage, the door bends, but then flattens like a platform moving down - not what we want.

So back at the 4 second mark I moved the door up on the 'Z' axis to match the horizontal part of the track.

 

 

I did have to fiddle with the Limits to find settings that kept the door on the track. It still moves slightly which is why this may not work for you. I guess it depends how detailed you need the animation to be, where is camera etc.

 

 

Lastly, here is a picture of the Sequencer - just 2 keyframes - 'Limits' and Position on the 'Z' axis.

 

 

 

DesertDude

WendyLuvsCatz said:

I am thinking the old cylinder and a lengthening plane trick

and untile the texture as it grows

Was this what you were thinking of?

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/663427/#Comment_663427

WendyLuvsCatz

DesertDude said:

WendyLuvsCatz said:

I am thinking the old cylinder and a lengthening plane trick

and untile the texture as it grows

Was this what you were thinking of?

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/663427/#Comment_663427

mine was much simpler as seen in the second half of my video but I got the tiling speed wrong

DesertDude

WendyLuvsCatz said:

DesertDude said:

WendyLuvsCatz said:

I am thinking the old cylinder and a lengthening plane trick

and untile the texture as it grows

Was this what you were thinking of?

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/663427/#Comment_663427

mine was much simpler as seen in the second half of my video but I got the tiling speed wrong

Cool, cool. Do you mind if I ask what the objejt looks like? Is it 2 objects with the animated tiling.

I didn't know one could animate the tiling count, just tried a quick test. Sweet.

WendyLuvsCatz

DesertDude said:

WendyLuvsCatz said:

DesertDude said:

WendyLuvsCatz said:

I am thinking the old cylinder and a lengthening plane trick

and untile the texture as it grows

Was this what you were thinking of?

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/663427/#Comment_663427

mine was much simpler as seen in the second half of my video but I got the tiling speed wrong

Cool, cool. Do you mind if I ask what the objejt looks like? Is it 2 objects with the animated tiling.

I didn't know one could animate the tiling count, just tried a quick test. Sweet.

just a cube and a cylinder resizing and translating, very very simple

DesertDude

WendyLuvsCatz said:

just a cube and a cylinder resizing and translating, very very simple

Cool, thanks!

Diomede

Any chance we can see what was chosen as the solution?  

I'm curious.