reins on horse

[cookie]

I would like to know how to connect the hands of a horse rider to the reins so that the reins will move properly in a flexible way, while attached to the bit in the horses mouth which in turn moves the horses head. The problem will be to simulate the movement of the reins as if it were like a chain, the extra rein lenght is hanging down from the hands. Also the horses head may be moved, moving the reins and hands.

[tbryant]

I did a rig for a horse a while back. For the reins I just used a nurbs curve to deform the reign geometry (wire deformer) and setup blendshapes for this curve. So there was a blendshape for the maximum + and - x,y and z position of the jockeys hand movement and then these blendshapes were driven by the position of the jockeys hands. Another set of blendshapes were done for the horses head/neck movement, and these were driven by the relevant attributes for the horses neck controls.
The reigns deformation curve was then made into a softbody (with weights set to 1) and the horse geometry set as a collision object. The reigns now wouldn't cut through the horses neck during extreme movements.
Not very elegant but it worked as a quick solution for what we were wanting to do.
Hope this maybe gives you some ideas.
Tom

[cookie]

Thanks will try that, how did the rigging of the horse and jockey work out for you.....would appreciatte any data you have kicking arround....

[tbryant]

It all turned out ok in the end, but as usual it would have been nice to have had a bit of time to get everything actually working properly instead of constantly having to fix/fudge stuff as we went along Still, at least I've got some more ideas to work from now, next time I have to do a horse rig.

No examples of the rigs still kicking around unfortunately since the project has long since been off-lined.

Good luck with your rig.

TomB

[cookie]

Thanks again....where are you based? we are in the UK my email is dave@fatcatstudios.com ..... if you want to keep in touch and show me some of your work..

Dave

[tbryant]

yeah, we're based in the UK as well, at Axis Animation, up in Glasgow in fact.

While we're mainly Lightwave based, I do get to get my Maya hands dirty now and again, although not as often as I'd like!
feel free to email me at tom.bryant@axisanimation.com if you've got any questions.

TomB

http://www.axisanimation.comhttp://www.axisanimation.com