Rigging Question??

[Tom]

Hello All-

 

If you view the attached picture you will see that the goal is to create a rigging whereby a Pose Slider can cause a larger tube to cover up a slender hose over time.

 

I tried rigging the larger tube with a simple parent child boning situation however, because of the curve in the line, when the first parent bone is scaled down, it causes all of the children to collapse vertically and so the larger tube does not adhere to the curve of the slender hose.

 

I thought of constraining to a path but was hoping that it could all be done with a simple Pose slider.

 

Any suggestions are appreciated!!

 

Thanks!

 

Tom

[robcat2075]

Quickest and dirtiest solution.... model it as in "B" and use either a matierial effector or an animated transparency map to slowly reveal the Blue part from one end to the other.

 

If you actually have to have the blue mesh move along the path then putting a bone at each spline ring and using path constraints to move them is the way to go.

[Tom]

Quickest and dirtiest solution.... model it as in "B" and use either a matierial effector or an animated transparency map to slowly reveal the Blue part from one end to the other.

 

If you actually have to have the blue mesh move along the path then putting a bone at each spline ring and using path constraints to move them is the way to go.

 

 

That sounds like a very good solution!

 

I have a couple of different shapes that need to use this technique so I was wondering if there was a way to create one "material" that can be applied to each different shape without the need to re-animate a different transparency map or material effector for each individual shape?

 

If I am able to apply one material, Is there a way to make the "reveal" or transparency of that material follow the curves and twists of an object? It seems I will be limited to successively revealing along only one axis..

 

Again, thanks for any insight!

 

T.

[robcat2075]

you could apply the animated reveal map to a straight tube and then use different poses for that tube to contort it into the shapes you need.

 

There's probably a way to do this with a material but I haven't thought it thru.

 

 

This vid shows an animated transparency map on a curvy tube (about 17 seconds in). I don't recall if I used the prestraightened method or not.

 

http://www.brilliantisland.com/demoreels/idl_150kbps.wmv

[mtpeak2]

Use the same technique as Robert said to do with the map for a material.

[Tom]

you could apply the animated reveal map to a straight tube and then use different poses for that tube to contort it into the shapes you need.

 

There's probably a way to do this with a material but I haven't thought it thru.

 

 

This vid shows an animated transparency map on a curvy tube (about 17 seconds in). I don't recall if I used the prestraightened method or not.

 

http://www.brilliantisland.com/demoreels/idl_150kbps.wmv

 

Great animation! Good job!

 

If you do think of a way to achieve this with a material...please let me know.

In the meantime I will try the other techniques!

 

thanks !!

 

Tom

[mtpeak2]

If you read my post you would know how to do it with materials.

 

Model the tube straight. Apply the material. Create a percentage pose that animates the material. Create an ON/OFF pose that shapes the tube in muscle mode (set this to ON in the user properties). You can even create different ON/OFF poses for different shapes. Then in an action or chor, use the pose slider to animate the material.

[robcat2075]

with an animated bitmap

tube.mov

 

with a material. Not sure why it shadows so weirdly.

tubemat.mov

 

 

 

the PRJ

tubetest.zip

[Tom]

with an animated bitmap

tube.mov

 

with a material. Not sure why it shadows so weirdly.

tubemat.mov

 

 

 

the PRJ

tubetest.zip

 

 

Many thanks for all the help!!

 

Tom

[johnl3d]

gradient would do this too

 

just set up hose as straght when setting up pose

 

 

hoses.mov

 

 

hose.prj