Swaying wires/tubes

[Flypaper]

Originally posted by CarlCampbell
.... Anyhow, all I need is for the wires them selves not to deform at all, maybe just flex a bit in a ropey kind of way, like if there was a light breeze making them sway back and forth. Any ideas?

Carl:beer:

Ant not deform? Kind of impossible, unless your moving the whole object you'll have to deform it in some sense of the word. If it's just a simple wind movement, and your not willing to invest the time using sim cloth, I would simply suggest using a spline, click renderable, and simply keyframe one or two points along it to move. Simple & fast, If you want you can even apply a slight noise controller too it. Just play with the settings and such.

[CarlCampbell]

Well, actually they would have to deform somewhat, I guess. But I don't think keyframing would look natura enough, or would it? Say a have a loop wire, one of those that drop down, curve and go back up again and the curve sways in the wind. What ways are there to animate that swaying back and forth in a close-to-natural sort of way?
When I mentioned "not deforming", what I really meant was without the wire mesh getting any thicker or thinner at all. Any ideas?

Carl :beer:

[Matt-Clark]

This sort of question seems to be cropping up alot recently.

Here's a tutorial I wrote ages ago for creating ropes with Sim Cloth.

http://www.3dluvr.com/content/artz/3dsmax/std/acme-cable.php

[CarlCampbell]

Hey! That really came in handy! But what about the actual swaying movement? How would I accomplish that?

Carl :beer:

[Matt-Clark]

You use a wind space warp, which you bind in the sim cloth roll out.

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.