how to animate a rope??

[BrandonD]

Rope dynamics are built into reactor and/or MAX 5. In a nutshell, you create a spline, normalize it (NormalizeSpline Modifier) to create an equal amount/spacing of verts, add an EditSpline or SplineSelect and select verts you want to be affected by dynamics, then add a ReactorRope modifier and go from there.

It's VERY effective and I've used it in production on many occaisions. In fact recently I was suprised what I could do with it - create a constrained set of powerlines that held back an object that was pressing against them.

[kaydawg]

here is the exemple of the anim iam tryin to do. (avi/divx)
its a long stick that is suposed to grab the end of the black cable and take it up ...following the purple path.
i know i should use some controller ...but i dont how to do it .

thanks a lot ...but please give me some help iam traped! its for my job.

here where u can see the avi: http://chez.com/tupac2/exemple.zip

[BrandonD]

I can't do the work for you, but I did explain how to use the built in Rope system. Give it a try.

[Matt-Clark]

http://www.3dluvr.com/content/article/87

That's an ancient tutorial I wrote for making ropes/cables with simcloth. Bit dated now, but it still gives great results.

You can, of course, make splines in the same way Brandon mentions above and apply it to that rather than the method in the tutorial.

[snot_nose]

does rope reactor works on max 4?
it looks like it's there but there is no way to make it work.:shrug:

can you point out what are the main differences between rope reactor, simcloth and the flex modifier?

[BrandonD]

Reactor Rope works well. I've used it in production several times.

[kaydawg]

thanks brandon i really appreciate your help ...iam gonna try the reactor rope tho i never used it ...but still my problem is how to connect the movement of the rope with the movement of the stick that is supposed to drive the end of the rope to the top .
thats why i asked if i should use some attachment controler.
so iam still w/o a solution the deadline is for tomorow...iam toast!

thanks a lot anyway for all ur help iam really greatfull.

[snot_nose]

if u want the end of the rope to follow the stick then you will need to use linked xform but if you want the stick to follow the rope then yes, you should use the attachment controller (you can look in the manual for help on those)
i never tried reactor rope but i just used simcloth 2.5 for animation i did also with a rope and it works perfect. you don't even need to use the linked xform if you use simcloth because you already have an option for attaching vertex in the modifier.

so i suggest that you will get simcloth 2.5 (it's free!) and follow mat clark's tutorial (or the tutorials that come with it)

good luck

[MFreywald]

I believe I've done basicly what your looking to do with this little animation I made..

http://home.pacbell.net/freywald/pfloyd.gif

It was done using the Reactor rope and in Max 4.

Basicly, what you need to do is exactly like BrandonD said. But what he forgot to elaborate on is the attaching. You basicly do the selectspline modifer but select all the vertices except for say the last two (or one) and then add the rope modifier. Then another selectspline modifier and select the two vertices (or one) you didn't select before and apply an AttachtoRigidBody modifer and use your stick to attach to. Also, after you've done the simulation go back and adjust the keys of the rigid body (your stick) back one frame as it kinda screws up and the rigid body (your stick) will be one frame ahead of the rope animation.

Hope this clarify's it a bit for ya.

[snot_nose]

i don't get it.
where is the RUN SIMULATION button??

i have the clear keyframes button and reset default values but there is no button like simcloth have for calculating the simulation

[gaggle]

I think it'd be a great idea to start a new scene and just mess around with Reactor for a few hours Snot, just to get a hang of the basic features. Check out the tutorials and descriptions from the manual, the logic Reactor uses is imo a bit.. er.. tricky, at first, but it all falls into place quickly.

[kaydawg]

please somone have the reactro help files i dont have them.
or if u know some tutorials on the reactor rope.
peace.

[gaggle]

Áh...

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