The Targets

As part of the animation some poor, defenceless straw men are brutally attacked by the marauding Armoured Tank.
In order to position the victims I first imported the straw man model into the animation file.
I then drew a circle at the end of the tanks' path, where I wanted the assault to happen. It was then case of locking the straw man to this circular path and then used the same technique as I did for duplicating the cannons around the tank to create the ring of straw men.
Of course the tank has to be able drive into this ring. Because of the manner in which I had created this group there was not enough room for the tank to enter without passing through a straw man or two, which of course would shatter the illusion of reality.

Fortunately this problem was easily rectified by simple using the select and move tool to reposition the obstructing straw men into a more suitable position.