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So here is my problem. How to animate the motion of a soft rubber plunger that is cut away so that I can see it from the side. This really has me stumped. I thought that bones might work.Not really. I tried to use morph targets but its not a smooth bend from the top down as it compresses. Any ideas would be great.
Thanks
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you can combine joints with a non-linear squash deformer (setDriven key should be simple enough), and perhaps even via a lattice deformer, that should get the nice effect your after.
try pressing 'b'…
ldunham.blogspot.com
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I tried a lattice and there seems to be too much stretching in the middle, but maybe the squash deform might work.
Thanks
Author: dwass
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| Replied: 27 February 2012 10:10 AM
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So, the squash deformer doesn’t allow me to control the bending with enough sublty. I need it to keep its round shape at the bottom and flex out and down in the middle. This is much harder than I thought it would be.
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Open the attached file and drag the time slider between frames 0 and 20. Is this sort of the effect you’re going for?
The setup here was pretty simple so it doesn’t allow for much fine tuning once you’ve set your keys, but it might work depending on what your needs are. The animation is from moving one control vertex on a nurbs curve with soft selection.
3ds Max 2013, Maya 2013
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit
Core i7, 12GB RAM
Nvidia Quadro FX 3700 (Driver 297.03)
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Wow I never thought of soft select for this. I’m a little confused as to how the curve is set up to be the control
for the deformation. Thanks so much. I knew it couldn’t be as hard as I was making it.
Author: dwass
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| Replied: 27 February 2012 02:39 PM
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Here is an updated scene that has the plunge action set up as a Set Driven Key. If you select the object “CtrlCurve” you will see it has an attribute called “Plunge” that you can control between 0 and 10.
The plunger is made from nurbs surfaces based on CtrlCurve. I first selected CtrlCurve and made a “Revolve” surface from it. Then I “Offset Surfaces” the revolved surface to create the thickness. Then I selected the appropriate Isoparms and did a “Loft” to close the gaps.
For the Set Driven Key, I had the “Plunge” attribute as the Driver, and all the individual control vertices of CtrlCurve as the Driven objects. Let me know if you need any more help setting that up if you choose to go this route.
3ds Max 2013, Maya 2013
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit
Core i7, 12GB RAM
Nvidia Quadro FX 3700 (Driver 297.03)
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This is great and I think as I looked at the second scene that I understand. But I still have questions about the first scene. I have reproduced the lofted surfaces as you described. When I pick the control points at the top of the out side curve and move them with soft select the inside mesh doesn’t follow along. I did loft between them and the flat edge on the outside moves as it should but not the inside mesh.......some kind of connection problem?
Author: dwass
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| Replied: 28 February 2012 05:05 AM
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Hmmm.. When I get a moment in a few hours I will post a video of my process and you can compare that to yours…
3ds Max 2013, Maya 2013
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit
Core i7, 12GB RAM
Nvidia Quadro FX 3700 (Driver 297.03)
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Here is a video showing what I did…
(video removed. See below videos instead.)
3ds Max 2013, Maya 2013
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit
Core i7, 12GB RAM
Nvidia Quadro FX 3700 (Driver 297.03)
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That was great and I realize now that mine didn’t work because I drew a second curve for the inside revolve surface. If the inside revolved surface needs to have a different shape is there any way to link the surfaces so that they will deform just by using the outside curve. I’m thinking that I might have to duplicate the first curve, move it inside, move the cvs to a new position, revolve both and then I would have to use soft select on both curves to move them down.....
Author: dwass
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| Replied: 28 February 2012 02:05 PM
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Here are some videos that show the full process. There is a part 1 and part 2.
These videos also show how to use 2 curves for the inside and outside surfaces of the plunger.
3ds Max 2013, Maya 2013
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit
Core i7, 12GB RAM
Nvidia Quadro FX 3700 (Driver 297.03)
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OK, so next time you are at Siggraph I will buy the beer. These videos are fantastic! I have been box modeling way too long it seems, so this really helped. Can you think of any reason why after selecting my two curves and going to component mode, it will only let me select cvs on just one of the curves at a time so I can’t move them together.
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I have solved my selection problem....but after making my revolves I have parented them to an empty null. But when I move the null it pulls apart....endless questions.....sorry
Author: dwass
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| Replied: 29 February 2012 04:11 AM
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Sounds like I’d better go to Siggraph then!
In my video, you’ll see that after I select both curves I am going up to the menu area and clicking the “Select by component type” button instead of just doing the usual right-click and select the component type. This gives me access to the control vertices of both curves at the same time. If you still want to do it by right clicking, then select both curves and right-click over one and choose control vertex, then right-click over the other and select control vertex. This should let you edit both at the same time.
3ds Max 2013, Maya 2013
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit
Core i7, 12GB RAM
Nvidia Quadro FX 3700 (Driver 297.03)
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And really, this whole thing could have been done with polygons. NURBS were not neccessary. The soft-selection should work just fine on the vertices of a mesh. It’s just nice to have the connectivity to the original curves that define the shape of the plunger.
3ds Max 2013, Maya 2013
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit
Core i7, 12GB RAM
Nvidia Quadro FX 3700 (Driver 297.03)
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Polys were the original plan but I just couldn’t get the inside edge of the shape to hold its thickness with soft select and also be able to deform it properly. That why I liked your version so much.
Author: dwass
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| Replied: 29 February 2012 05:02 AM
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