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View Full Version : Looking for some advice, dynamic animation

ah-fx
07-28-2009, 06:55 PM
Hey guys I have a shot where a wizard lifts some ornaments (40 of them) into the air with magic, they fly around him in a vortex and then he directs them to a specific spot.

I thought about using particles, but I wand to be able to specifically position where they land and their orientations, also the ornaments are referenced into the scene and they are made up of a couple pieces of geometry.

So I was thinking I might try using rididbodies with some fields to do it, but I am not getting good results when they fly from the swirling vortex to their targets. I thought about using parentConstraints so I could have controll over where they land. Basically I set it up so the oraments have targets that lift up and swirl around, and targets where they land. Im sure you can guess that the transition is a little weak. Basically the transition is very linear. I would like it to have a specific curve, but still have a dynamic feel to the motion.

I'm looking for a some advice about executing this effect.
linuxInferno
07-28-2009, 11:45 PM
You could use particles with instanced geometry. You can use goals/goal weights as per particle attributes to affect each one specifically. Add rotations in the instancer. if you already know where each one is supposed to land you can put a location there so you can get the world coordinates of their final goal position. Mess around with the weight so that when they get close the goal weight gets high so they don't overshoot the end.

You could also use nonlinear deformers to modify the particle shape to give you your motion, there is a script that will back particles to animated locators. Parent your ornaments to them and make them passive rigid bodies. when they get to the point where you want them to land, keyframe them to active rigid bodies.

Or, you could hand animate a couple of them and use those as goals for your particles. then refer to the second idea and keyframe them as active rigids to land
ah-fx
07-29-2009, 12:57 PM
awesome mthorson, just the kind of tips I was looking for.
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