How to rig a whip

#1

I’ve been researching how to rig a character swinging a grappling hook, but not to sure how to animate the swinging of the rope. I have posted this question on many sites, but it seems like people are just avoiding the question. Should I use bones to rig the swinging of the rope or use reactor in 3ds max? The character will be holding the rope with one hand and swinging it with the other. What is the best way to animate the rope with a grappling hook?

#2

Typically for a grappling its ‘shot’ towards a target then the cord is pulled tight and straight. I did a grappling hook for the Mercenaries 2 commercial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcJyCdbC08c

I was able to get away with a wire deformer and clusters on a curve to give the ‘slack’ while it flies.

Hope this helps.

#3

I totally see what you’re saying, but you would not use bones for the character actually swinging the rope. Everything will be created in 3ds max and then imported into UDK or Unity 3d. Could you explain how you would create this in 3ds max, please and thank you?

#4

Ahh, exporting to game engines makes that a bit tougher.

I would check out this clip:
http://www.dannymatson.com/

(Animation > First thumbnail in the cartoony section)

He’s got a rope swing with just joints done in max.

I would suggest creating a joint chain similar to the one shown. Rig it with a splineIK.

http://www.kxcad.net/autodesk/3ds_max/Autodesk_3ds_Max_9_Tutorials/tut_using_spline_ik.html

Hopefully this helps.

#5

Thank you so much for the help. I’ve been looking for an explanation of this for a while, but it seemed like none had an answer. Is it possible to put physics to bones?

#6

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