Animated Valve Mechanism

 [Beginner-Intermediate] [This Setup Does Not Use Dynamic Connectors]

In creating my animation for Nine Ball Champions, I wanted some kind of complex mechanical animation to go along with my chain/gear drives, something that was similar to a Valve Mechanism in an automobile engine. In this tutorial I’ll show you how to utilize the awesome Ray Collision Xpresso node to simulate actual dynamic action of the cam “pushing” the valve rods out, and the Distance Node to control the compression of the Spring creating the illusion of “tension” of the valve rod against the cam.

In this convincing yet simple setup, we’ll utilize one Constraint Tag, two keyframes, and some basic Xpresso to create the Fake-Dynamics in our valve mechanism. So, download the file and let’s get started.

 [This is not a modeling tutorial, so all the geometry for the Valve Mechanism is in the “Valve Mechanism_Start.c4d” file which you can download below. Also, we will not explore textures or lighting in this tutorial.]