Creating a Dynamic Rope or Chain

nightronin

Hi All,

I working on a project for a class on 3D modeling. One of our assignments is to create a mechanical device. My first thought was to create a portcullis with a winch to haul the door open. Before I get to far into this project, I have a question regarding dynamic ropes or chains.

Is it possible to create a rope or chain that would wind around the winch and haul the portcullis up or would I have to animate the the sequence of door and winch then and a non-dynamic rope?

nightronin

Forgot to add, the class is using maya. I have that, Max and zbrush available to me

Kurt Russell Fan Club

A rope would be slightly easier to get looking good -- model it wrapped around your winch etc, then just animate the UVs so the mesh stays the same but your texture animates.

You can do the same thing with chains if they are alpha planes. Two alpha planes at 90 degrees to each other can make decent chains, depending on how close you'll get, and the angle with the camera. If you want proper mesh chains then you'll have a harder time.

ghaztehschmexeh

I don't know if this exists in maya, but in max what I would do is model the chain, and apply a path deform on it, onto a spline. So you simply move the spline to move the chain.

Edit: Like below. You can animated the percentage to move it along the spline.