Build an Advanced Drifting Car Rig in 3ds Max – Day 1

Laurens Corijn on Sep 28th 2009 with 44 comments

In this advanced level tutorial, you will learn all of the steps necessary to build a fully functioning car rig in 3D Studio Max. This rig features working suspension, steering and body roll, as well as some functionality for drifting and powerslides. You will learn how to set up internal functionality through links, constraints, expressions, and parameter wiring. The final result will be a robust rig with easy, and accessible controls.

This tutorial is Day 1 in a series – Go to Day 2

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Project Files Download: FinalCarRig.rar

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This tutorial is Day 1 in a series – Go to Day 2

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By Laurens Corijn

Rollover to read this author's bio or click through to see a full list of posts by this author.

I'm Laurens Corijn, a recent Digital Arts & Entertainment graduate from Belgium. I've been doing CG for 4 years now, mainly focusing on mechanical subjects such as vehicles. I equally enjoy working on high-end rendering, and optimized, real-time, video game art. Besides doing CG, I like to spend my time listening to music, and riding and maintaining my motorcycle. My website can be found at: laurenscorijn.com.  

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Discussion 44 Comments

  1. Sebastian says:
    September 28, 2009 at 6:57 am

    Why is this tutorial not for Cinema 4D? I would love that :(

    Reply
  2. Fllad says:
    September 28, 2009 at 7:19 am

    Great tutorial. Have been looking for a car rigging tutorial forever. Cant wait for the second part

    Reply
  3. Georgi "Vrednia" Zahariev says:
    September 28, 2009 at 7:21 am

    I think the tutorial is really cool, and i think you Sebastian can integrate the methods in Cinema 4d

    Reply
  4. Stefan Frank says:
    September 28, 2009 at 2:09 pm

    This is what i`m talking about! Ok i have learned this a while ago but definitly more advanced than the last tutorials. Very nice! CG Tuts is back ! Thanks

    Reply
  5. João says:
    September 28, 2009 at 5:55 pm

    I am learning a lot with you guys…keep good work.

    From Portugal

    Reply
  6. mushtools says:
    September 28, 2009 at 9:37 pm

    really a nice tutorial, thanks

    Reply
  7. Green says:
    September 29, 2009 at 6:34 am

    Very cool ! thank very much !

    Reply
  8. CIonutD says:
    September 29, 2009 at 7:52 am

    More 3ds Max tutorials please

    Reply
    • tam lam says:
      October 7, 2009 at 9:27 pm

      it’s really cool tutorial but I can’t download it, it is not browse on the web

      could you show me how to get it

      thanks so much

      Reply
  9. monkeyalexthekidd says:
    September 29, 2009 at 6:03 pm

    thanks for the great tut

    Reply
  10. andi says:
    September 29, 2009 at 10:34 pm

    holy shit this is amazing

    Reply
  11. Cristian Pop says:
    October 5, 2009 at 4:36 am

    Amazing!!!

    Reply
  12. dnch says:
    October 5, 2009 at 7:57 am

    i want this in lightwave! frack cinema:)
    great one, thanks

    Reply
  13. tam lam says:
    October 7, 2009 at 9:31 pm

    could you show me how to get it

    the tutorial not preview on the web

    Reply
  14. Boozy says:
    October 9, 2009 at 2:34 pm

    Cool Beans

    Reply
  15. wayne says:
    October 9, 2009 at 5:43 pm

    WOW One of the best iv seen and iv been looking for years thanks.By the way if you have time plese post a tutoreal of a car rigg for reactor in max.

    Reply
  16. ganesh says:
    October 11, 2009 at 7:09 pm

    Thank you very much. please come back soon with tuts like this

    Reply
  17. miaz3 says:
    October 14, 2009 at 5:14 am

    Wahou, thanks a lot for this videos tutorial. Great work !

    Reply
  18. Domen says:
    October 30, 2009 at 11:18 am

    Great tutorial, but i run into problems with expression. Can you write down the expression that you used for motion of the spring and send it here or to my e-mail?

    Reply
  19. jtg says:
    November 5, 2009 at 3:39 am

    Very good tutorial…But wheels are not rotating after 100 frame. What’s the reason..?

    Reply
  20. testout says:
    November 7, 2009 at 9:06 pm

    thanks man it is a great tut and i hope to u a good luck

    Reply
  21. valentious williams says:
    December 19, 2009 at 12:41 pm

    great tut
    i learned a lot here
    am from the Caribbean
    \we don;t have people teaching this kinda stuff here.
    i really need a reactor tutorial .like using the motor effectively

    Reply
  22. DakHo says:
    December 22, 2009 at 8:21 am

    Great tutorial !

    I’m having some problems with the body suspensions, but i hope i’ll solve them as soon as possible.

    Thanks a lot!

    Reply
  23. duc says:
    January 15, 2010 at 10:15 pm

    does anyone know how to click and drag out a line like in the tut where the next vertex is restricted to being placed on along a single axis? like at time, -24:00

    Reply
  24. Hossam H.Sakr says:
    January 30, 2010 at 7:34 am

    hiiiiiiiiiiii

    thanks Laurens for this awesome tutorial and i have question ??

    in part 1 every thing is okay till using IK when i am going to make last step linking IKHandle_Momentum & Dummy_Momentum_Taget with Body_Susp my car getting Scale and every thing getting crazy

    * my car is seperated parts not one Object *

    Reply
  25. aman says:
    February 2, 2010 at 11:59 am

    sir please give us more tutorial

    Reply
    • Ebay says:
      March 25, 2010 at 10:22 am

      For that to not happen, make sure you have a clean save to before you make the IK link. Then redo everything. Before making the IK, go to your car Hierarchy pannel, and check all the “Scale” locks. Also make sure to remove the “Inherit scale”. You might also want to do the same with the Dummy_Body_Momentum, as it get scaled down when you make the Position constraint.

      Reply
  26. hardy says:
    March 6, 2010 at 8:56 am

    Hello,
    After tutorial end when I rotate SlidePivot about Z axis more than 90 degree,
    car body makes quick rotation on 180 degree. It is very strange.
    I think that this tutorial has defect.

    But nevertheless, thank you

    Reply
  27. karysino says:
    March 18, 2010 at 11:07 am

    hi ther…… gr8 tut…. ha im looking for a car crash tut like collision effects 360 roll… etc. would b gr8 if u make one…. wil b waitin for tat thank ya for this tut….

    Reply
  28. Goran says:
    April 13, 2010 at 6:25 pm

    This website is great, You should be in youtube uploading some tutorials, so you get more famous, and get more visitor to your website.

    Reply
  29. Ben says:
    April 22, 2010 at 5:59 pm

    Absolutely hit the nail on the head – impressed – surprised there arent more comments and retweets – I hope you keep doing these tut especially the video’s they are excellent – thanks

    Reply
  30. Mike says:
    May 12, 2010 at 4:57 am

    This is the coolest tutorial i have ever seen!
    i’m making a car model and i’ll apply this rig on the wheels of my car!

    Thanks For The Tutorial!!, Keep it up!

    Reply
  31. mazen khalil says:
    July 3, 2010 at 9:30 am

    Thank you for yr tutorial
    about the expression float problem . i made S*Slider then update the speeddrive location and its working well,
    keep in mind to make yr speed weel from zero to 20 maximum and u can use all the frame u want

    Reply
  32. Yogesh says:
    August 30, 2010 at 8:51 am

    Thanksssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss……………………….. a lot ,you are doing great work, please keep it up…..
    Thank ones again…………….

    Reply
  33. Codie says:
    September 2, 2010 at 4:21 pm

    Awesome tutorial, and I want to ask what is the grey car in intro video? It looks freaking good

    Reply
  34. sandeep says:
    September 22, 2010 at 5:29 am

    I was looking for this thanx alot

    Reply
  35. INdesignER says:
    January 10, 2011 at 4:31 pm

    THANKS FOR TUTORIAL…..ITS GREAT TUTORIAL , BECAUSE I NEED IT ….THNKSSSSSSSSSSSSS

    Reply
  36. Ron_619 says:
    January 19, 2011 at 7:43 am

    hello,

    I needed some help in d wheel setup of my car as it is having a disk break & a caliper ,the problem is that if i will link the caliper wt the dummy it will also rotate along with the wheel which is not correct…..some plz help me……:/

    regards

    Reply
  37. PuppinoCbr says:
    May 2, 2011 at 8:19 am

    Great!!! According to you, is it possible to do that in Luxology Modo 5 and/or Lightwave?

    Reply
  38. Andrew says:
    May 27, 2011 at 1:30 am

    Great Tutorial. nice Work! Just what i needed.

    Reply
  39. wajid ali says:
    June 1, 2011 at 1:23 am

    its a nice one procedure. but i want to learn more

    Reply
  40. Michael Kjergaard says:
    June 26, 2011 at 3:04 pm

    How do i download this tut? i have payed for the premium account, but cant see a download buttom?

    Reply
    • Chris Tate says:
      June 27, 2011 at 12:16 am
      Staff

      Hey Michael,

      You can download the tutorial by right clicking on the “Full Video” link (above the embedded video) and choosing “Save Link As” that should let you save it to your hard drive :)

      Cheers!

      Reply
  41. Denis says:
    September 18, 2011 at 5:21 am

    Laurens, thanks for GREAT tutoruail!

    I have one problem – when I lower DriveSpeed in AttributeHolder wheels rotate backward ((((

    Reply

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