Getting started

Welcome to Craft Animations and Craft Director Studio. This guide will teach you the basic workflow of Craft Director Studio.

Click on the Craft Animations icon to open Craft Director Studio's main window.

Read more:	Starting Craft Director Studio in 3ds Max
	Starting Craft Director Studio in Cinema 4D (Windows)
	Starting Craft Director Studio in Cinema 4D (OS X)
	Starting Craft Director Studio in Maya (Windows)
	Starting Craft Director Studio in Maya (OS X)
	Starting Craft Director Studio in Softimage (Windows)

There are four Create groups: Vehicles, Cameras, Accessories and Templates. Click, and hold down the mouse button, to open the vehicle group. ().

Click on 4WheelerFree.

Related:	Activating the evaluation period for a tool
	Activating the evaluation period for a tool (OS X)

Position 4Wheeler_01_CarBodyMesh on your high poly mesh.

Scale 4Wheeler_01_CarBodyMesh so that it fits your high poly mesh.

Position and scale the wheels of Craft 4-Wheeler Free. Make sure they are properly centered in the middle of the high poly wheels.

Link/Parent the high poly meshes to their respective parts (4WheelerFree_01_CarBodyMesh, 4WheelerFree_01_WheelMesh_FL, 4WheelerFree_01_WheelMesh_FR, 4WheelerFree_01_WheelMesh_BL and 4WheelerFree_01_WheelMesh_BR) so that they will inherit the motion once you start to record.

• Use Link () in 3ds Max.
• Use Parent (Edit -> Parent (Hotkey: P)) in Maya.
• In Cinema 4D/Softimage, drag the respective high poly object to 4WheelerFree's dummy part in the object list so that it becomes its child () in the Object manager.
• In Softimage, drag the respective high poly object to 4WheelerFree's dummy part in the object list so that it becomes its child () in the Scene explorer (Hotkey: 8).

Read more:

Craft 4-Wheeler Free's help documentation

Use the high poly toggle () to hide the high poly meshes. The high poly toggle can be found in the tool tree list in Craft Director Studio's main window.

To interact with a ground object, link/parent GravityDirectionMesh (the red arrow) to the object.
Please note: If you leave the GravityDirectionMesh linked/parented to the CarBodyMesh, Craft 4-Wheeler Free will use a flat, invisible plane to drive on.

In order to control the vehicle in real-time, you need to configure some inputs for the tool. Open up the Input Settings by first highlight 4WheelerFree in the tool tree list, then clicking on the icon found in the hotbar in Craft Director Studio's main window. This will open up a new window.


Here you can either select a profile in the list and click the Load Profile button () to load an input preset, or use the Detect button to have your input detected. We recommend using an analog input device, such as a gamepad/joystick.

Read more:	Input settings
	Input settings (OS X)
	Enabling keyboard support in OS X

To get a better view when maneuvering Craft 4-Wheeler Free, change viewport to one of the following cameras:

• DriverCam which is placed approximately at the height of a drivers head in an ordinary car. Its position can be changed if needed.
• FollowCam follows the car smoothly from a third person view.
• TopViewCam follows the car 25 scaled units above the roof helping the driver to perform pinpoint navigation in tight spaces.

Click Record in Craft Director Studio's main window to start recording. Maneuver Craft 4-Wheeler Free with the input settings configured earlier and drive the desired route. Craft 4-Wheeler Free's movement will be saved during the duration of the recording. Click Stop to stop the recording.

• If the recording is not satisfactory drag the timeline back to any position desired and continue to rerecord from there. This way the entire recording does not have to be redone.
• By using the Countdown feature (found in the configuration window (), under Main Configuration), it's possible to grasp the input device and get ready before the recording starts.
• To make it easier to maneuver tricky parts in the animations, use the Slow-motion factor in Craft Director Studio's main window.

You can change the countdown feature by entering Main -> Preferences.

Learn more:	Help documentations for Craft tools
	Craft Animations forum
	Useful scripts
	Support Contact

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