CeramicSpeed - Driven

[richardfunnell]

Hi everyone,

I was really lucky to get to work with CeramicSpeed on this project - Driven. It's their newest effort to create the most efficient drivetrain ever.

My involvement began a few months ago, we set out to create an animation that showcases the mechanisms and how the drivetrain actually works. There were a lot of revisions (including some more detailed versions they used internally) to get to the final 1,442 full 4K frames, which they then edited for the final animation. The result is here: https://youtu.be/Z6961OMLyao

I received STP files from SolidWorks, which I then re-grouped in order to control the part animations. There was a ton of math to ensure the correct angular rotations over time while shifting; the end result was a huge spreadsheet to help organize the values. I would render 720p versions overnight on my 64 threads, and get feedback the following day. I built the materials using physical samples sent to me, which was great reference. I ended up modeling a portion of the carbon fiber to get the specific weave and spacing, then creating a normal map based on the geometry.
The final frames were rendered by 3D off the Page in order to make the deadline and at full 4K with motion blur and fade animations, you can see the original output here: https://vimeo.com/357873546

I also created still images for the launch, here's a sample of that work. Really amazing project to work on! Let me know if you have any questions about the process.

[TGS808]

That's beyond impressive.

[richardfunnell]

Thanks so much TGS! All the design work was done by CeramicSpeed, I just had to make it look presentable

[TGS808]

And you did. Lovely material creation. And the intricacies of the the timing of all the motion (that you needed a spreadsheet!!  ) makes my head spin. I'd love to see a screen shot of that animation timeline.

[mattjgerard]

Nicely done! I see the hard part of the visual to be to get the black parts to pop off the black background.

Also, did you actually animate this in Keyshot? I would really be tempted to animate this in another program that had a bit more fine tunability in the keyframe department. C4D's f-curve graph would work quite nicely for stuff like this. Granted I do very little animating inside keyshot so I'm really not sure what its capable of and the ease of working with it.

Being interested in physics and mechanical stuff, I'd be interested to learn of the way they got better efficiencies when changing the vector of the motion twice. Usually that is a prime location to loose efficiencies. Not saying old tech can't be improved on, but in theory the mechanics of the current gear-to-gear system is pretty good. Sure looks like pulling the rear wheel off to do tire and tube replacements would be greatly simplified though!

And carbon fiber is one of my favorite materials, yours looks fantastic!

[RRIS]

I can only imagine the headache when you first start to figure out everything! I'm also curious to hear if you animated everything within Keyshot. I guess if parts are grouped properly that takes makes things a little bit easier (like you said). Very impressive work!

[richardfunnell]

Yes, the animation was done 100% within KeyShot. The assembly structure was pretty good to start with, I just added a few extra levels in the scene tree to get a bit more control. Clear organization and hierarchy go a long way with making animations easy in KeyShot! I can't imagine creating this kind of animation without a good assembly structure.

The concept is driven by 2 separate pinions on the rear of the shaft that move independently, the biggest challenge was getting the timing right to ensure that there's no collision with the rear cog when they move. It's SUPER fast in real life, and we added the slow motion portion just to help viewers understand the movement. I would get the animations right, then adjust the camera to be at the right place at the right time. It was a lot of experimentation, and I animated a single camera with lots of zooms/inclinations/et al to create the sequence.

To control the rotations a bit more (and to hide any potential collisions between bearings and the teeth), each gear change was a combination of a linear rotation with an ease in/out on top to control the transitions a bit better. In real life the mechanism is spring loaded to take up the slack, which we didn't end up showing in the animation. Mine is slightly more seamless than reality, but not by much. It's an extremely efficient design!

I'm sure the CeramicSpeed folks are going to get a TON of questions about the system, and they've been answering a lot of questions on their social media so far. I can't speak to the engineering aspects of it, but from what I've seen the direct drive (built on their super smooth bearings) is a pretty novel approach

[Eugen Fetsch]

Saw it yesterday on the CeramicSpeed stand at the EUROBIKE show. Pretty cool animation - it looked well integrated into the black booth  

[Bob Savage]

That is awesome.