Dynamic Tail Help

Maya
1

hi guys,,
i am trying to setup a dynamic tail using maya hair system..it is working fine..but i want to give the animator the option of manually animating the tail or else if he likes it can be dynamically computed.

so i bascilly i want to create a switch with kind of does that(give the animator to muanally animate or turn on dynamics) .

pls help

thanks

2

You could set up a joint chain switching system for a manually controlled tail and a dynamic one; pretty much the same as you would do for an ik/fk switching arm or leg. Have both joint chains orient constraining the chain that the tail is actually bound to and then set up a set driven key to switch between the two.

3

thanks penguin,
can we animate the joint just from the pose where the dynamics stops or
is is possible to animate the joint while dynamics is being computed.

actually few days back i saw a showreel where this guy had rigged a fish he showed that he was able to animate the fins manually whislt dynamics was on...

keep replying and thanks for the idea

4

Actually there is way to animate dynamic curves. On one digital tutors video they show this useful tip. Anyhow hair-> create constraint...lots of constraints there, and you can use them to create some animations. They will have some randomness and wil not be 100 percent controllable, but that actually gives it more realism.

5

QUOTE(prattyy @ 03/12/07, 10:49 PM) [snapback]262074[/snapback]
thanks penguin,
can we animate the joint just from the pose where the dynamics stops or
is is possible to animate the joint while dynamics is being computed.

actually few days back i saw a showreel where this guy had rigged a fish he showed that he was able to animate the fins manually whislt dynamics was on...

keep replying and thanks for the idea

If you use the switching chain method you can leave the set driven key halfway between the two and it will pick up half the dynamics and half the manual control. You can also animate between the two so you could have it picking up all the dynamics at some point and move it over to completely manual when you need that. You might want to look into thirt33n's method too, I've never tried it and it sounds pretty useful.

6

hi guys thanks all of u for help..
i have tried the orient switching metod and its works but it has some glitches..

the joints start flipping at some point.....

and the other hair constraint metod doesnot work for me..i have used transform contraint which just makes the curve fly here and there...

any idea how to make things right..

anyways thanks for tour time.. keep replying...

by the way i have heard that it is easy to do with XSI is that right....

7

Hi, try to check the local orientation axis and be sure all the joint chains are oriented in the same way and set interpolation method of the constraint to short rather than average.

I hope this can help
bye