Creating ropes in maya?

BreaK

Hi guys could do with some advice.

Im wanting to model some kind of string/rope...and its going to be wrapped around 2 objects holding them in place. (See attached image). Im just wondering is there any way to model the string so that it follows the outline of the model?

Are there any tutorials knocking about?

Cheers guys.

Snowfly

This was just answered a few days ago-
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=77749

Might be interesting to see how it turns out in your case though, with the sharper turns in the curve and I think you'll probably want to flatten the rope against the surface of the base objects too.

SpeCter

I think he doesn´t mean a rope, more like bandages around something.
I this case he just has to make a rectangle extrude it along a spline(which goes around the target mesh). Or he could scoulpt it in(which should not work unfortunately in this special case)

Snowfly

True. This is one of those things that are better off faked than accurate.

Here's an attempt at it (in Blender but I'm sure you can translate the steps to Maya), still not fine tuned though. It's actually two separate strips crisscrossing on top of each other. I could adjust the edges so they weave over each other in places.


1. Trace spline around volume of target meshes.
2. Convert spline to poly edge and extrude out the width.
3. Shrinkwrap to the target object.
4. Create an edge loop running down the length of the strip.
5. Push out the boundary edges so they're lifted off the surface of the target mesh.
6. Shell/Solidify/whatever it's called in Maya.
7. Apply a uniform Subdivide (non-Catmull) to create a denser mesh for further sculpting.

I'll whip up some images in a bit.

Here's an alternate poly only approach in Silo, but only for a simple box volume:

Cut edges into mesh:


Bevel and separate out the strip into a new object:


Add edge loop and push out boundaries for pucker:


Add subdivisions to catch subd smoothing (I'm sure you can distribute the edges better than this )


Apply thickness, smooth, and copy them over. From here it's all vertex pushing to get the bandages to flow and weave the way you like.


The top and bottom strips can be modeled separately. Get creative when covering them up. Bound them multiple times, tape it over, throw on a nice knot...etc.

larolaro

I'm also going crazy trying to do something like this



How would you wrap a bandage (or rope) across an irregular shape like this?

Snowfly

Rob- Something like this?



I just extruded a squashed nurbs circle along a path which I drew on to the target mesh with surface snapping on. From there it's just a matter of controlling the twisting and tightness of the curve points, and adding extra points where needed.

BreaK

Yeah cheers guys...thanks for all your input! Gonna have a bash now!