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View Full Version : making mechanical tubes for a model. need some help please

nerveink
06-16-2009, 11:41 PM
hello everyone.

im trying to model a sentinel from the movie matrix and im having a little trouble with the tentacles.

the way im making the tentacles is just making one segment and then simply making a lot of copys. so now that ive done that i dont know how to connect em and make em bend properly ( i hope i said that right)

i have a screen of where im at. i made the segment and a spline and attached the object to the spline and then used the spacing tool to make several copys of the objects along the spline. now my problem is that the end pieces of each object are not connecting. soo can someone help please??

thanks in advance :)


http://i403.photobucket.com/albums/pp112/nerveink/Untitled-1-2.jpg
scrimski
06-17-2009, 12:09 AM
Apart from not connected theyaren't aligned properly either.

Most simple way(not the best):create a straight spline with as many knots as you need(1 knot or vertex per geometry segment), create a bone chain and use a splineIK on the spline and bones. Link each segament to a corresponding bone, deform the spline as you like.
eldee
06-17-2009, 05:06 AM
I'm a little rusty on Max lately (been using XSI for almost a year now), but I seem to recall a Duplicate along Path function, or something along those lines. If not there's definitely a maxscript out there that can, because it's an extremely easy program to write. I know XSI can do it, anyway.. and compared to max it's pretty crappy when it comes to utility functions like that.
nerveink
06-17-2009, 05:35 AM
scrimski:thanks. im fairly new to 3ds max so i really dont know how to use the bones. will definetly give it a try,thanks.

eldee: yes. i created a spline and then duplicated along the spline. but the problem is that all of the objects are facing one direction, but they are still following the spline. i think the method that scrimski describes will work but for someone like me who is still an amature at max, i think i might need a tutorial or something to figure it out.

if anyone can point me to a tutorial or be able to make one i would be most grateful.

thanks in advance
eldee
06-17-2009, 09:56 AM
well, there should be an option to actually have the duplicated object follow the spline.. Follow Tangent maybe? I don't remember.. but it's something along those lines.
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