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rigid/flexible
Okay, I have this tube. It’s supposed to bend, but only in certain parts of it. I kind of want those parts to look like thick rubber. The other parts are supposed to be hard plastic. I have something set up in Xpresso that keeps the different hard plastic segments a specified distance apart, and always pointed at each other (sort of… I just made up something that sort of seemed to work? Xpresso is hard and I am stupid.)
NOW, the coup de grace would be if I could make the rubber parts bend and stretch with the hard plastic parts, keeping each end firmly cemented to the plastic without the circular cross-section of each end squishing. That is, I want to make sure that the seams between the plastic and the rubber don’t come apart or overlap (as it is, they fit perfectly together).
here is a picture:
And they are actually tubes, meaning there is an inside and an outside, and I will eventually want to be INSIDE the tube watching this happen as well as outside of it. What would be really great is if the points on each end of the rubber section could stay completely locked to the respective parts of the plastic sections. I think it would be great to do this with xpresso, but I have dynamics too. any ideas?
-Gage Ullman
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3 Replies
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If you create the flexible parts with splines and sweep nurbs you can control the stretch and everything quit well. No dynamics needed.
This tutorial should get you the results you want.
https://www.c4dcafe.com/ipb/index.php?/files/file/125-xpresso-telescopic-pipes-2-cables-pulleys-spring/its free but you need to sign up.
/randy -
here is a tut on bending certain parts while keeping other parts rigid.. You control the flexibility by painting a weight map over your polygons. Not sure if it is exactly what you need, but its only about 9 minutes so it may be worth your time to check it out..
https://www.pariahstudios.co.uk/dynamic_deformers.html
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8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.6C4D 11.5
AE CS3
FCP 6.0.1 -
Hey, Thanks both of you. I was hoping to actually be able to put your advice into action before responding, but this is a side project for myself and I’ve been busy with work. BUT, I think I’m going to end up using both of these methods together in the long run. I did get to play around with dynamic deformers a bit yesterday and I thought it was pretty amazing how much could be done so simply.
When I have some results, I’ll let you guys know how it worked out.
Thanks!
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