How to make a tank track animation | Blender 3.3

In this tutorial I will show you how to use Blender to make a tank track animation.

Getting Started

I will be using a tank model I made for my 100 subscriber giveaway

I will move the tank objects up along the Z-Axis

I add an empty to the scene to act as the controller for the animation

I select the two Bezier curves and then the empty

Using CTRL + P I parent the curves to the object

If I now move the empty, the track will follow

I select the body of the tank and then select the empty

Using CTRL + P I parent the body to the object

If I now move the empty, the entire tank will follow

I open the timeline and under the output properties tab, I change the frame rate to 30 FPS

With the empty selected, on frame 1, I use the I-key to add a keyframe for location

On frame 60, I then move the tank forward

I add a second keyframe for location

I change the end frame to 60

I add a plane and scale it up to act as the ground – giving it a simple material

Under the properties inspector (N-key), under the view tab, I activate “lock camera to view”

Using numpad zero, I look through the camera and make any adjustments as needed

I add a sunlight and increase the strength

Under the render properties tab, I will change the render engine to Eevee

Under the output properties tab, I select where I want the animation to be saved

I will be using the ffmpeg video format with the QuickTime encoding option

I then choose render animation under the render menu