thanks for that. I’m not really a very good modeler, hence my basic catapult and building
FXWars! Catapult! (Trebuchet) : Derby-Q Salano
animalunae
#22
The more you model the faster you’ll figure out how to model stuff…If you want more details, I can write out some tuts if you want…
animalunae
#24
First I’m working, cause I didnt have time yesterday.
Texturing done I think, I’m not going to add more work on the weight, which I should, because it will have some motion blur in the end.
Now the rest of the wire work and I can put this in a scene…
CobraX
#26
Hey Man, you are fast, i guess you just have that to do 
just kidding hehe…
Good luck! I love the way your rope slides along the pulley…really cool.
How long do you plan on working on this thing?
animalunae
#27
Well my main goal these days is fill up my portfolio for when it gets online within a few weeks, when I lack inspiration I like to do these challenges… keeps me in shape, normally I go for speed modeling, to increase productivity, but I like medieval stuff so I jumped on this one as well…
I think I will be done with the treb by tonight, after that I think I will put it in some sort of scene… don’t exactly know which direction I will take on that though… Since we have a month, I might just model an entire castle 
animalunae
#28
I think the treb is finished, now I will have to focus on the wall that gets crushed.
Let me know what you think.
animalunae
#29
There. I think I’m happy with the animation, the rock is thrown a virtual 750 meters… which isn’t bad since the weights and measures are accurate… Just a hint: the rock is released when the speed is at 45 degrees with the floor…
CobraX
#30
Hey man,
Maybe a little comment Texture wise, you could, i am sure you know that, maybe try to give it some history, cracks, chips, dents, what have you! If you can and want…it could really give it some aggresive look…
my 2 cents
CobraX
#32
Hehe Whatever you choose…
Really cool simulation!! Did those trebuchet really fire 3/4 kms away?
animalunae
#33
And a textured animation:
I remember the movie the Gladiator, where in the extra’s on the 2Disk DVD, they talked about how they could fire a bolt like 100m far, although in those days, they could reach up to 500-1000m… I find it sad that knowledge in crafts like that (same for Japanese Katana’s) were lost in evolution…
coryc
#34
In researching these things today I found someone has one that can launch an 8 pound pumpkin 930 feet so there is little doubt the full size, full weighed versions could do 750m.
WhiteRabbitObj
#35
According to wikipedia the largest trebuchets shot about half a mile, apparently. Pretty darned far indeed.
Still looking good derby, got a real headstart on me (been too busy this week to get a lot done!) and mine is going to end up looking a whole lot like yours, which aint good! Got some good ideas to mix it up though. Will look forward to seeing what you come up with for the wall.
animalunae
#36
If I were a pumpkin I wouldnt fly to high either… but seriously, I also doubt I’m right about the distance… in my final version, my rock hits the ground at 670 units from the treb… not very realistic maybe… But as I said, these days, they don’t get the distances that were reached in those days… the Romans were quite good at the building and operating of those things… I should do more research in historical based texts for the distance… but you know what… I don’t really care if it would have been possible… instead I spend my time modeling…
gaggle
#38
Looks really cool derbyqsalano, good action going. The varioues wires adds nicely to the action. Do they affect the machinery directly? Or are they of the “there to make things look pretty” type?
Oh also how’s the ball released now? The sling mechanism looks pretty accurate so maybe you switched away from the animated constraint?
Also also imo the wires remain underwater-esque. Not really a problem, just… you know, if you’re looking for something to tweak that could be one area. …actually I guess all the movements feels a bit slow/dampened to me.
If you’re really concious about going the extra mile you could also score points by vibrating the whole rig as it fires. Show all that energy being absorbed into the frame.
There’s a bit of an odd jump in one of the sets of wires, right before it launches. Is that on purpose? Like it hasn’t settled correctly or something…
animalunae
#39
Well normally the wires should be set correctly, although they do seem too slow… these wires however are 8 meters long… the size might give a damped feel, or perhaps the wires aren’t heavy enough… well I don’t know if I will tweak more, I’ve had a rough point that took me like 3 hours to solve, after that I don’t think I will tough any of the controls… Just too risky, but I’m sure next time I will work much faster with the dynamics, and I will be able to prevent the problems I got, and tweak more afterwards, for now this is gonna be it though, the trembling would be a nice tough… The wires are mainly just detailing, to make it a precise model of the ones used by the French in Medieval times…
And yeah there are some artifacts in the motion, I noticed that too, I tried getting it out, but I almost got stuck with no setup at all… so I got scared and left it the way it was
The unlocking of the ball is still keyed… if this is against the rules then ban me, because I really would like to see a setup that works, with a completely dynamic unlocker… Sure you can make a hook and a ring… but 1: hooks and rings are very dense and will result in either crashing dynamics or super slow dynamics. and 2: Once you make it work, you still have to get the ball of the hook… In my model, the ball is in some sort of bag, kept closed by a little stick, the wires that come from the middle of the arm and go to the ball are pulling the stick out when the ball is further away from the arm, then the length of the unlock wires… hope you’re following… Well to do it like that, I would have to work with a bag, constructud by squares and constraints… in the end I wouldnt get there, trust me… there is too much that can kick a simulation in the nuts and frankly it should be done with keying if possible… hence the unlocking key… which is the only key in the simulation btw…
HowardM
#40
YES!
Finally LW does something Maya cant!
You can use an event to cut a point loose, with the ball parented to it!
