ruffling feathers

#1

I’m trying to use pflow to populate a bird with feathers, that:

a. follow the surface normals
b. get ruffled due to wind

Now I’ve gotten a) figured out, but I cant get b). I need the feathers to ruffle and yet still stay locked at their pivot, which is at the tip of the base. At the moment they just kind of move around as a whole along the surface of the emitter. I’m using max 10 and the lock bond. Any fplow experts out there that can give me a hand? If possible a simple test file would be great.

#2

Have you considered using Max hair instead?

#3

That would be a better option I think, as without box 2 you will have some trouble with getting the feathers to react to one another.

Max hair is… well lets just say it needs a little work. It is alot better in 2010, but it has some bugs. I just did a training video for CGtuts+ (it will be up within a month as I am encoding it now) and I ran into alot of little bugs, especially at render time. But they can easily be worked around as long as you know what the cause it.

  • Evan
#4

been there, done that…

http://3delicious.de/spielwiese/federkleid02.gif
http://3delicious.de/spielwiese/LockBond_federkleid.gif
http://3delicious.de/spielwiese/LockBond_federkleid1.avi

max9-32 demo files:
http://3delicious.de/spielwiese/LockBond_federkleid.zip
http://3delicious.de/spielwiese/LockBond_federkleid02.zip

the secret for the wobbling lies in the force influence (must be below 100% for that trick). please read the help about that topic (Lock/Bond) :slight_smile:

#5

I would first animate a feather being ‘ruffled’, from default to bent position. Populate surface with feathers in default psotion, then I would create a deflector that I would animate along surface as desired, to send each feather to another state of the animation. Cheap and nasty but will work.

#6

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