{Animation} Physics driven gun strap?
I know I know I can animate this by hand but it seems as though the results are not really worth the time put in to it.
Basically what I want to do is using some sort of physics simulation software to drive a bone chain, which in turn will move a mesh skinned to it. Said mesh would be a strap on a first person gun model. The software used is 3ds max in this case.
I have tried using reactor rope and the flex modifier. Both "work" but not with out their problems. For each I take a bone chain and assign a spline IK to it. Then I drive the spine using either reactor or flex.
Reactor: It is very very finicky and seemly erratic in regards to what it spits out. It also has the rope twist which is not good considering the strap has length and width and is therefore not prone to twisting.
Flex: Works perfectly when set up right. Why not use it? First person weapons (in this case anyway) are very small in regards to scale on the grid. This is around the size that the engine wants and scaling it up won't do because then i would have to re-rig, bone, etc everything.
Evidently the change in scale messes it all up : (
I know there is a method that involves using angular dash pots and reactor rigid objects but I would rather not use that as the result isn't very realistic looking.
Basically what I want to do is using some sort of physics simulation software to drive a bone chain, which in turn will move a mesh skinned to it. Said mesh would be a strap on a first person gun model. The software used is 3ds max in this case.
I have tried using reactor rope and the flex modifier. Both "work" but not with out their problems. For each I take a bone chain and assign a spline IK to it. Then I drive the spine using either reactor or flex.
Reactor: It is very very finicky and seemly erratic in regards to what it spits out. It also has the rope twist which is not good considering the strap has length and width and is therefore not prone to twisting.
Flex: Works perfectly when set up right. Why not use it? First person weapons (in this case anyway) are very small in regards to scale on the grid. This is around the size that the engine wants and scaling it up won't do because then i would have to re-rig, bone, etc everything.
Evidently the change in scale messes it all up : (
I know there is a method that involves using angular dash pots and reactor rigid objects but I would rather not use that as the result isn't very realistic looking.
Replies
That way you can still set keys for your final rig getting in and out of a root pose if you need too. You can also copy the mesh while its in the root pose (tools > Snapshot) and use that as a morph target to morph the cloth back into the root pose.
Also Jim Jagger has a great Animated Align script that snaps and keys one object to another making it even easier to key the final rig.
http://www.jimjagger.com/Pages/Tools/JJTools_Complete2011.htm
I did a step by step tutorial on the process a few years ago:
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=66993
Anyway you go you probably want to separate your simulation from your final rig so you're not stuck trying to get a simulation to loop.