Leaf with nCloth (close-up shot)

#1

Hi everybody.

I’m working in a project with some pals, and it includes a animation over a leaf. We don’t want to rig it because the effect we get it’s not the same. We decided to use nCloth instead. The idea is to make it look like this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tee4jYtrGXE

But even after days of trial and error I’m not near of the effect. I know the video uses a transform constraint and a field, but Im not gettint the settings right

Could you suggest what set up and settings I should try to get the effect right.

Thanks in advanced everybody

#2

I would suggest using simplified geometry(see attached scene). The output cloth mesh could then be used a wrap deformer on your final leaf. The spine of the leaf needs to be very stiff, but the bend resistance should be less towards the edges and tip of the leaf. One could do this by mapping or painting the bend resistance, but the base bend resistance will need to be very high (along with stretch/compression and substeps). Instead in this scene I use a component to component constraint on cvs I wish to stiffen, using the maxDistance setting on the constraint and setting the max distance to create the desired links.

A different technique would be instead to use input mesh attract. (one wouldn’t even need any constraints) You would paint the input attact 1 along the base of the stem then carefully gradate it away from the stem to get the right motion. The rate of gradation and the base inputAttract strength would be critical for the right look. InputAttract won’t work, however, if you intend to move the base or attach it to a moving object. I think the constraint method would be preferable if that were the case (painted rigidity could be used, but I would avoid it).

#3

Wow, that’s exactly what we wanted. You are the man.

But, even though the leaf is working, we have a very specific set of requirements for the shot and maybe you can give us a few directions to follow aswell.

The idea in general is to have a scene like this one

http://d24w6bsrhbeh9d.cloudfront.net/photo/aG9DDGK_460sa.gif

(but not that realistic, cartoonish).

The characther will be animated and then simulated for the tongue thingy shot (as part of the same shot). I have two questions based on the scene you provided.

  • The leaf we want is like the one in the gif, with the borders pointing upwards. That’s an important artistic requirement. In the simulation they tend to fall and they don’t maintain the original shape. What would you suggest to improve those issues?
    t
  • We tried a few scenarios to simulate the mantis being dragged by the tongue, and they gave us very good results, but the collision with the ncloth are driving us crazy. The scene you provided is a very good example for us, but you have any suggestion for more complex character setups, like the one in the gif.

Sorry for the questions, this is the first time we are using dynamics so heavily (they were always background stuff).

Thanks in advanced, you already helped us a ton.

#4

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