Animating along a path?

Deke

Is there an easy way to chart a path for a ship or person to move along? I'd like to animate a space ship moving in a nice smooth arc, but it's pretty tough to do with any precision. One option is create a null, parent the ship to the null, then rotate the null, but this only works for a curcular path.  

Ivy

I have never done any work with space craft.  But i have done a few animations using air craft.  The best way  to make a object move alone the timeline is you just need to practice. how the animate timeline works and how to time your motion to make the movements look right..   start with 30 or 60 keyframe  1 to 2 seconds. and play with how you can animate objects alone the timeline to find the solution your looking for.. I lot of animation I have done with daz studio is just trail and error.  and learning how the timeline works and how to create motions with your characters along it.

Click th picture below to watch the animation

KA1

For a craft turning as you describe I agree with @Ivy above. I've found that putting in the travel key frames in first and then rotation key frames after, graph mate is incredibly useful for making any adjustments you need to the rotation key frames after yo get it looking natural.