Free Tutorial: Animate a Cartoony Car To a Stop

In this super simple beginner animation tutorial we show how to animate a vehicle coming to a sudden stop. The free tutorial uses the free "AnyCar 3.1.4 for Maya" rig, downloadable here from Creative Crash.  

This is a fun, simple tutorial that is aimed at animation beginners in Autodesk Maya, part of our series of animation basics for students who have never used Maya before.  

Yellow Beetle Rig
The Beetle rig, snappily titled ""Swappable Car Rig with Ubershockies - The AnyCar 3.1.4 for Maya" is a great way to get some fun, cartoony vehicle animation into your demo reel. It squashes and stretches nicely, and you can make it bounce and sway as it chugs along. Although you might need to stick a driver behind the wheel on a close-up or medium shot, the Beetle can be made to have a personality all of its own. If you can't download the AnyCar, you can replicate the tutorial with any cartoony vehicle. 

Bring a Car To a Stop - Tutorial

You can watch the free video tutorial below:

Work Method

Follow the steps below:

1. Download the AnyCar vehicle rig. You can also find it in UG Shares. 
2. Open Autodesk Maya, create a new project, name it carStop, set to it, and save it. 
3. Copy the vehicle into the scenes folder and import it into your shot.
4. Download a copy of the cartoonland set from Turbosquid, copy that to your scenes folder, and import that into your shot. You can also find it in UG Shares.
5. Set your timeline from frame 101 to 160.
6. Set a keyframe on the car at frame 101 and another at frame 160 so that the car travels through the shot
7. Now stop the car at frame 141, so it comes to a sudden stop.
8. At frame 145, have the car roll forward on its suspension
9. At frame 149, roll the car backwards again. Keyframe the bonnet (hood).
10. At frame 153, roll it forwards again and stop. Keyframe the bonnet (hood) up
11. At frame 157, bring the bonnet (hood) down.
12. At frame 160, Keyframe the bonnet (hood) up
13. At frame 163, keyframe the hood down again. You're done.

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