Drawing moving object coordinate in x-z direction

Question

I try to use Blender to animate an object rolling down a hill and draw its free fall coordinate in x-z direction.

Is it possible to trace its path?

Thanks

Answer 1

If all that's required is to trace its path in the viewport (rather than actually including it in the render) then just selecting the object and clicking the Calculate button in the Motion Paths object properties panel will calculate the path and display it in the viewport.

If, however, you want to include the path in your render then you'll need to create it as actual geometry (eg, a curve that you can add a bevel). This can be achieved using particles (similar to @thibsert's answer) as detailed in How to add trailing light effect to finger tips?.

Answer 2

You can use a particle system for that:

Select your object and add a Particle System to it (in the Particle panel, click New).

In Emission, set "Lifetime" to 1 (so the particles will be alive only for 1 frame).

In Render, check "Died" (so the dead particles will still be drawn).

To go further:

In Emission, you can use Start and End to define the frame range of the trace.

To obtain a more precise trace (ie, the particles are emitted by the object center), you can use the following settings : Emit From: Volume, Random: unchecked, Particles/Faces: 1.