Animating a Spaceship and Dog fight Tutorial
This tutorial will guide you in creating a very simple dogfight with 2 spaceships. This is a setup for spaceship motion that can be built upon to animate even complex ship interaction.
This tutorial is written for an beginner to intermediate user of 3dstudio. I am assuming you can create objects and are comfotable using the modify and motion panels. Just follow along and you'll do fine. Once complete you will have knowledge of using path contraints and dummy objects in a hierarchy to animate the dogfight.
This tutorial is specifically written using 3dsmax 7 but the concepts should be similiar for any version of 3dstudio. I am assuming you have the default toolbar layout in 3ds.
Let's get started.
Step 1 - In the TOP viewport create a line object with about 5 to 7 vertex points. It doesn't have to match exactly as we will manipulate the vertexes later. Name the line object "Path for Ship 1"
Step 2 -Once the line is created, make sure the line is the selected object, click on the modify panel, select the VERTEX points on the selection rollout as shown below.
Step 3 - In the FRONT viewport, select various vertexes and drag them up or down so that the line has some variations to it. Again, it doesn't have to match exactly at this point, just get something close to this and lets keep going.
Step 4 - Next let's select all but the outermost vertexes, right click to bring up the menu and select Smooth vertex. In the figure below you can see the selected vertexes in red and right click menu.
Step 5 - We are done with the line for now. The next step is to create a DUMMY Object. So lets select a dummy helper object and create one in the front viewport. Again, the exact location doesn't matter at this point. Call the Dummy "Dummy 1 motion" You should have something that looks like this
Step 6 - With the "Dummy 1 Motion" selected, click on the Motion Panel, open up the parameters rollout if is not already open, select the POSITION controller, and click on the ASSIGN CONTROLLER Button. You should see something similiar to what I have below.
Step 7 - Select PATH CONSTRAINT from the assign position controller window and click OK to change the position controller type.
Step 8 - Now select the POSITION: PATH CONTRSTAINT, Click on the ADD PATH Button, and select the "Path for Ship 1" line that we had already created. Once you do this you will see 2 Animation Keyframes created on your timeline. Go ahead and play the animation and see what happens. You should have the Dummy object now following the "Path for Ship 1" in a very rigid fashion. In the same path parameters rollout, iin the Path options group, check off the 2 boxes for FOLLOW and BANK and at the very bottom of the rollout check the box for FLIP. Now play the animation and see what you get. The Dummy should now be making some smoother twists and turns along the path.
Step 9 - Animated Dummies are nice, but we want some spaceship action right? So lets add one. Find a ship model you would like to use, scifi3d.theforce.net has many usable models. Go ahead and MERGE in a model file of your choice using FILE - MERGE - and select the model file. I used the Y-Wing model, merged it into the scene, and scaled the model fit a little better. Go ahead an make any adjustments you want to size the model. It might help to create a GROUP for the model if it is built from different parts that have not been joined together. With the ship model selected, Align it to the Dummy Object with all three "Align Orientation (Local) XYZ" so that the ship is lined up with the dummy.
Step 10 - Next, we need to link the YWing to the Dummy Object. Use the SELECT/LINK Icon 
and create the link between the YWing and the "Dummy 1 Motion" Object . Go ahead and play the animation. You should see the space ship following along the path with the dummy. If your spaceship is flying in reverse, go back to step 8 and check the status of the FLIP Checkbox.
Step 11 - Now we have a flying spaceship that will follow the line we created. To adjust the motion of the ship, you need only change the shape of the line. So you can create very simple flybys to very exact and detailed flight paths. To complete this tutorial, repeat the steps to create a 2nd path and 2nd ship to fly along with the Ywing and you can see the dogfight taking shape.
Congratulations, you have just created the basics for a dogfight animation and have learned to use a Path Contraint to control an objects motion. You have also learned to create a Hierarchy of objects to further control animation. The Dummy may seem like a useless step, but in the future, when you start adding secondary motion, the dummy objects become invaluable so get into the habit of using them now. Go ahead and another ship, or 3 or 4 or 5 more. Modify the shape of the lines to make realistic flight paths. Position Cameras properly and you can render several angles from the same animation to create very useful shots for editing. Use this in conjuction with a Skysphere and you have the makings of a CGI space battle.
Thanks