Carrara user Joe Pingleton combined a looping NLA walkcycle with Fractal Dimensia’s PySwarm script, the PyCarrara plugin, and Sparrowhawke3D’s Follow Terrain plugin to create this animation test of multiple figures finding their way across a varied terrain.
He explains the process:
This is another experiment with the PySwarm plug in for Carrara 8.5 Pro and NLA Clips. This time the figures follow the terrain object using Sparrowhawke3d’s Follow Terrain Plug In for Carrara.
I created a “Boid” group that was a figure with a looping walk cycle NLA clip with a duration of 2 minutes. Then I replicated that “Boid” 10 times and numbered the “Boid” groups. Then I used PySwarm to generate a movement script with 10 boids and 1 attractor object. Then I imported the PySwarm script into Carrara. Then I applied Sparrowhawke3d’s Follow Terrain Plug In to make each “boid” drop to the surface of the terrain object. One walk NLA clip and the Pyswarm script control all movement, no key frame editing.
http://pyswarm.wikia.com/wiki/Download_and_installing_PySwarm#Latest_Version_of_the_PySwarm_Package
OK. That’s pretty cool!
Thanks 🙂