4.
Apply Bank and Roll to the Plane
You can use
banking or rolling or a combination of the two to control the sideways
rotation of the plane in relation to the path. The Auto-bank
factor, found at the bottom of the plane's Transform
tab, is set to 1
by default which produces a small amout of banking in the plane.
Change this value to 5
to see a more pronounced effect especially at the path control points
where the curve segments meet.

If you want
to control this rotation yourself to create a smoother effect, set
Auto-bank
to 0. Make sure
the plane is selected with the Pose
tool and the Path handle is active. Move to the frame where you
want some roll and drag on the round portion of the handle to rotate
the plane. Press k
to keyframe the Position
and Roll parameters.
Repeat this as many times as you want to alter the roll of the plane.

When you playback
the motion you will see the plane speed up and slow down at every
point where you keyed the roll. This is because the in-between position
keys are preventing a smooth run along the curve. RMB-click
on the Position
parameter in the Parameter pane and select Scope
Channels. Select all the in-between position
keys and press Delete.
Next, select the remaining channel and change its Function
to linear ().
Now the playback is smooth with the keyframed Roll
parameter contributing to the animation. |