Animation update: Xwing following curve

X wing Following A curve Shot

I wanted to have a shot of the x wing from the front whilst it was flying around the asteroid. To do this i created a camera and aimed it facing the front of the xwing, I then grouped this camera with the Xwing.

I then created a CV curve and drew the path i wanted the Xwing + camera group to follow, I drew the path  around the asteroids and from the Top View perspective as it was really difficult to do it in perspective view.

I then used the control vertex to bend the curve so its path looped round the asteroids better, this also made the curve have some quite steep, parts and some more gradual slopes which i think will work well in the animation.

By then selecting the camera and Xwing group and then selecting animate and the motion paths, and attaching the group to the motion path, I made the length of the curve last from frame one to frame 200 as this created the right sort of speed i was after, also using the bank option meant the group turned with the curvature of the motion path which made the group bank left or right depending on the curve.

The motion path setting i used.

The scene still wasnt looking that great after this the x wing send quite rigid and didn't look like it was flying as the front of the xwing wasnt always dead straight on the curve, so what i was able to do was use key frame animation to animate the xwing as it travelled along the curve so that it turned as sideways as it flew round asteroids, i exaggerated the movements to try and incorporate the exaggeration principle  of animation .It also enabled me to have the xwing squeeze through gaps in the asteroids which looked really good

Again this method combined with the motion blur effect in the maya software shader worked really well, you defiantly get a sense of the speed and agility i was trying to portray