Laure1759
02-06-2009, 06:41 PM
I am trying to make a phone cord, actually it is not a phone cord but the principle is the same. I’ve been through different tutorials but I didn’t find the accurate answer. I tried to be creative but the results were pathetic each time. The first tutorial I tried to customize was this one: http://www.learning-maya.com/259-0-how-to-set-up-a-rope-animation-with-local-gravity-part-1.html
So instead of the regular curve I used an IK spline handle with a stretchy rig (the same one than those used in creature rigging). A polygons spiral was smooth bound to the rig. The IK Spline handle’s clusters were parented to rigid bodies (cubes) weighted by gravity. It was working well gravity and stretchiness wise but as I couldn’t move the tip and the end (rigid bodies), it didn’t work that great.
The second tutorial I tried to be inspired by was this one: http://www.mindspring.com/~jkemp/cord.html and I tried to mix it with this one :http://www.christerb.com/tutorials/maya_modelspiral/index.html
But again it wasn’t working well because each time gravity was applied the Nurbs circle used to create the spiral was not rotating so the spiral tended to flatten in an ugly way. If I remember well I wasn’t able to attach a Poly spiral instead of the Nurbs one because you can not attach clusters to the vertices of curve or something like that. I am not sure about that but I remember that the impossibility to attach something to a curve vertice gave me a hard time.
I tried to transform the spiral in a softbody and use it as a spring, but the deformations looked bad.
I tried this one too: http://forums.creativecow.net/archivethread/61/547243
I tried too this tutorial: http://www.highend3d.com/maya/tutorials/dynamics_fx/Creating-a-dynamic-telephone-cord-using-Maya-Hair-289.html
Which is the one that gave me the closer result but still and this is a problem I had with all the tutorials I cannot control very precisely the tip and the end: meaning that when I move the receiver of the phone the very end of the spiral is going way off and I am not even talking about rotating the receiver which is actually what I have to do.
To sum up my problem is that it seemed impossible to constraint a part of my spiral to a specific part of another object.
Sorry about this super long post, thanks to those who we will have the courage to read it (I am not really interested in working with dynamics but I have to work it)
So instead of the regular curve I used an IK spline handle with a stretchy rig (the same one than those used in creature rigging). A polygons spiral was smooth bound to the rig. The IK Spline handle’s clusters were parented to rigid bodies (cubes) weighted by gravity. It was working well gravity and stretchiness wise but as I couldn’t move the tip and the end (rigid bodies), it didn’t work that great.
The second tutorial I tried to be inspired by was this one: http://www.mindspring.com/~jkemp/cord.html and I tried to mix it with this one :http://www.christerb.com/tutorials/maya_modelspiral/index.html
But again it wasn’t working well because each time gravity was applied the Nurbs circle used to create the spiral was not rotating so the spiral tended to flatten in an ugly way. If I remember well I wasn’t able to attach a Poly spiral instead of the Nurbs one because you can not attach clusters to the vertices of curve or something like that. I am not sure about that but I remember that the impossibility to attach something to a curve vertice gave me a hard time.
I tried to transform the spiral in a softbody and use it as a spring, but the deformations looked bad.
I tried this one too: http://forums.creativecow.net/archivethread/61/547243
I tried too this tutorial: http://www.highend3d.com/maya/tutorials/dynamics_fx/Creating-a-dynamic-telephone-cord-using-Maya-Hair-289.html
Which is the one that gave me the closer result but still and this is a problem I had with all the tutorials I cannot control very precisely the tip and the end: meaning that when I move the receiver of the phone the very end of the spiral is going way off and I am not even talking about rotating the receiver which is actually what I have to do.
To sum up my problem is that it seemed impossible to constraint a part of my spiral to a specific part of another object.
Sorry about this super long post, thanks to those who we will have the courage to read it (I am not really interested in working with dynamics but I have to work it)