Newton Physics simulation object question

[detbear]

I've been trying to try a newton simulation, but it gives me an error saying that I need "at least one simulation object..."

 

What do I need to do to get newton physics set up on a few models so that they fall to the ground???

[John Bigboote]

In the PWS ... highlite a model and in it's properties go all the way to the bottom--- 'Plugin Properties' then select whether you want a 'static object' or a 'dynamic object'. I have had very little experience with any of the other options.

Also- you will find other settings in the same whereabouts under the choreographies tab.

[detbear]

Thanks Matt. You're Awesome. I'll give it a try!

[John Bigboote]

I spent a year one month putting Newton to the test on these 2 Little Caesar Pizza spots:

https://youtu.be/ArTuFTbpYXQ

This was in 2008 and I had not yet had the opportunity to add Ambiance Occlusion into my workflow which I think woulda helped a lot on these.

[detbear]

I'm finding that my objects try to "right" themselves. Like a "weeble wobble". I'm not sure how to

get an object to end up falling over when it hits the surface.

[John Bigboote]

You do need to make sure the object's orientation is XYZ'd at the zero axis point in the model... so if you had a ball or a square dice and it was not 'dead-centered' in the model it will act funny in a simulation.

[detbear]

Matt,

 

I have a question about importing a choreography with newton physics into another chor.

 

Once I do this all comes into the new choreography working as expected. HOWEVER, if I try to move the imported choeography

to a desired location, the simulated objects jump back to 0,0,0 world space on frame 2.

 

Is there a way to translate and rotate the simulation in the choreography??

[robcat2075]

I thought of a fix if you haven't got one yet.

[robcat2075]

In case there isn't a better solution...

 

Problem (for anyone else looking in):

 

-Your Newton simulation is in a chor and it's a set of pieces, each of which is its own model. The model bone for each piece is what is animated and gets keyframed.

 

-You can import that into a new chor but apparently can't move all the animation.

 

My idea...

 

- import your sim Chor and leave it at 0,0,0

 

-make a new model (We'll call it "Fred") that has as many bones as your Newton sim has model bones.

 

-constrain each Fred bone to a Newton model bone.

 

-bake the Fred bones

 

-remove the constraints and do the reverse... constrain each Newton model to its corresponding baked Fred bone

 

- Now you can move the model bone for Fred and the Newton pieces will follow, with their animation too.

[John Bigboote]

Rob's approach sounds good- here are my thoughts. I never really tried importing a chor into another chor, so I don't know... other than to say- make sure your 'Animation Mode' is set to OFF before you go about moving anything- this could preserve all those keyframes. What I did (in that Little Caesars animation) was to do my simulation in the chor, save the simulated choreography action as an Action... now you can bring it into another choreography, and as I said above- turn OFF animation mode and place the model with the action where you need it... this may get complicated with multiple dynamic objects as I think about it...

[robcat2075]

Animate Mode OFF! That is genius Matt.

 

I just tried it on a simple Newton sample and it seems to work. I got a crash after I fiddled with it a while, but it works long enough to re position the Newton Group.

 

 

 

Update.... I've tried a bit more. Translation appears to work, but rotation not so much. <_>

[John Bigboote]

Genius? never! Lucky guess!

 

That was the 'secret sauce' for making that Little Caesars TV spot linked above... I simulated over and over until I got myself about 15-20 hero coin fall actions, then I populated them in my hero choreography one-by-one with a rotoscope of the logo text as a resting-place target. The same actions were applied to nickel models, dime models and penny models... and since it was an action file I could slide it down the timeline to where I wanted it... staggering them.

 

A funny side note (I may have already told...) These spots were made for a small (1 man) ad agency that had the Little Caesars account. The man was very integral in art-directing the spot and was LOVING the way it looked in final render. Once it went thru post-production another animation house that used maya gave him a critique on the photorealism being 'not quite there'... which turned my client sour on the spots and they only ran on TV locally for about 1 month and were pulled. 2 years later I am working at another company and my old post house calls me asking for my project files, 3D and all. I stalled them by saying 'sure- I'll put it up on the your network!' and hung-up... never to answer their calls again. Shortly thereafter- I hear that Little Caesars was pulling the account from the 1 man agency and going with a new bigger agency in NYC... as I was wondering if I was part of the 'fallout' in the account loss I start seeing the spots on air again... nationally and in big time slots. Turns out- the new agency had no new creative to run and LIKED the look and feel of these spots to run in the interim- so they ran for about 3 months. I received no monetary compensation but felt vindicated that once outside of the 'Detroit politics' my animation stood a fair chance!

 

 

EDIT- Crashing? Should not be! I did those spots in 2008 and A:M (as I remember) was very very solid.

[detbear]

Thanks guys.

 

Those sound like promising methods. I ended up doing some things by hand since I didn't have much R&D time.

 

I brought the pieces into the desired choreography and did a new simulation.

 

In order to maintain the existing simulation that was in the choreography already, I turned that model off. When I ran the new sims,

it was not effected. Once the others were done, I turned the model back on and it maintained it's original sim as well.

 

Turned out great for what I'm doing.

[detbear]

Hey.....

 

I'm trying to do a different simulation with newton. This has a character hitting a pile of objects with a "sword"....

 

What do I set the character to in order to have the objects react to the sword??

 

The sword is a part of the character's model and not a separate object.

 

Kevin

[John Bigboote]

You may need to get sneaky for this...

 

I would... copy the sword into its own model with a 0,0,0 axis... then constrain it in the choreography so it moves and angles like the real sword... set the proxy sword to 'Newton dynamic objects' and the colliding objects as well. Run the sim until you get reactions you like, then OFF the proxie sword...

 

This could be done for the characters legs as well if, for example- you were hitting beach balls in a small room and they bounced off the walls and needed to interact(bounce off) with the character... you would make a proxie 'tube shape', constrain to the character's legs (one by one) run the sim and get the dynamics you want and then turn OFF the things you don't- come render time. Sneaky!