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Rigging bones moving along a spline 3DsMax - I need help

Armabelico
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Armabelico polycounter lvl 6
Hello I'm trying to learn some basics on rigging in 3DsMax, I want to rigg a rope in a cable roller / spool then pull it through a pulley.

After some tutorial research I think the best way is to move a chain of bones following a spline but I'm not able to make them follow each other.
After making the bones and assign a path constrain only the 1rst one moves and the others won't follow.
What can I do?

Please I need help.

Replies

  • monster
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    monster polycounter
    I wouldn’t call spooling a chain of bones “basic rigging”.

    Try spline IK that might work better. There might be some flipping, but if it’s a thin cable you may not notice.

    Also consider not doing the rigging. If you just rotate a spool of cable, and have a straight cable hovering very close it may be convincing enough.
  • poopipe
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    poopipe grand marshal polycounter
    Spline IK will work eventually ,  you need to path constrain the control points it generates to the path you want the hose to follow. 
    There will be flipping which you can control with lookats etc. 
    However.  As monster says, this is not basic - in fact, it's one of the most awkward things to get right. 

    If it doesn't absolutely need to be bone based I'd suggest you use the path deform modifier which is designed for precisely this sort of thing. 
  • Armabelico
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    Armabelico polycounter lvl 6
    Thank you guys for your answers I'll try to make it that way, just for practicing but, I want to learn how to rig it, If you can  give me some advice or tell me about a good tutorial It'd be great, I don't know what "core knowledge" it needs. The thing is I thought about making the guide bounce a bit as it gets pulled using physX or asomething like that. I found that "old Reactor" for max is very usefull on this matters but it's not on max anymore.



    This is the model I want to rig.



    This is what I'm trying to do.

    Already did a rig on the poles underneath the cable using a skin modifier, bones as controls and morphing to make it retract and extend. I'm able to do it but I just can't find the information or figure what process it needs to be done.

    I'll do what you guys suggested to me and post a gif on how it works but I really want to make a rig with controllers, making the poles extend and pulling the rope making it bounce as it gets tension.
  • poopipe
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    poopipe grand marshal polycounter
    The bit that makes this difficult to do with bones is the cable coiling around the reel, all the controllers will lose track of which way is up and start flipping around. 

    However,  here are some words to Google.... 

    You can use spring controllers for jiggling things.  They're pretty simple and robust. It's an effect you'd want to layer on top of the main rig though.  It's that or a cloth sim really. 

    SplineIK is straightforward so a quick Google should cover how to set it up (it's just an IK controller so you should be able to just guess tbh) 

    One thing that might not be immediately obvious is that you can blend between multiple controllers on objects - again, something worth googling - it's commonly used for fk/ik limbs so should be well documented.


  • Armabelico
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    Armabelico polycounter lvl 6
    Hello guys, and sorry for the delay. I managed to create the animation using SplineIK as a base, thank you! :D .
    It breaks at some point but it works.

    By saying that it breaks at some point I mean it totally derrails from the "path", but still does the movement mimicking the spline shape but not on it. I guess it's a matter of pivot orientation since the spline is a compound of 2 spring shapes and a line merged together.
  • Armabelico
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    Armabelico polycounter lvl 6
    poopipe said:
    The bit that makes this difficult to do with bones is the cable coiling around the reel, all the controllers will lose track of which way is up and start flipping around. 

    However,  here are some words to Google.... 

    You can use spring controllers for jiggling things.  They're pretty simple and robust. It's an effect you'd want to layer on top of the main rig though.  It's that or a cloth sim really. 

    SplineIK is straightforward so a quick Google should cover how to set it up (it's just an IK controller so you should be able to just guess tbh) 

    One thing that might not be immediately obvious is that you can blend between multiple controllers on objects - again, something worth googling - it's commonly used for fk/ik limbs so should be well documented.


    I made this using the techniques you guys gave to me. thank you very much again.
    https://youtu.be/bYec7Skiqtw

    Cheers
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