Keeping an Object Oriented Perpendicular to Path?

[stusic]

I'm trying to animate an object between two splines and would like to keep the object perpendicular to the splines (like the axle of a train staying perpendicular to the rails).

I've set up the object to follow path on one spline and set up a LookAt constraint on a dummy that's path constrained to the other spline. It almost works, but since each spline is a different length (they're twisty and curvy), one Path Constraint outruns the other and my object ends up becoming slanted towards one or the other.

Am I doing this correctly? Is there a better method to keep the object oriented like I want? Thanks for any help 🙂

[Diffus3d · Accepted solution]

You can use the "follow" checkbox to keep it aligned, and you can use the normalize spline modifier to ensure they move at a constant rate.  If your objects still seem to change direction in route, then use a helper on the spline constraint and link your model to the helper.  Then you can adjust the link info to not inherit certain transforms. 

Best Regards,

[stusic · Accepted solution]

Thanks Alfred, that was helpful. I tried it this morning and got it to work 🙂 However, last night I tried doing it in Tyflow and got very good results with that approach. I think I'll go that route this project, but this will definitely help in the future. Thanks again 🙂

[Diffus3d]

Tyflow is awesome, no doubt.  Glad it worked out for you!  I'll mark your post as a solution so that the next person with this issue has multiple options.   Thanks for posting your solution!

Best Regards,