|
By 4u2ges - 5 Years Ago
|
I was thinking of sharing some variations of Rampas' flex tube in Marketplace, but then I figured fairly easy way of making them.
Here is a speedy tutorial from start to finish - everything you need to make one yourself in Blender and animate in iClone.
Physics ini file is attached.
|
|
By wires - 5 Years Ago
|
|
You never cease to amaze me Gurgen. :cool: Thank you. :)
|
|
By toystorylab - 5 Years Ago
|
You keep on pushing... Thanx ;)
Damn, i have to bite the bullet soon and get into Blender... :blush:
|
|
By 3dtester - 5 Years Ago
|
Thank you for this turorial 4u2ges.
I am trying to follow it and it seems i could keep up up to some point.
But when you say "Select loop vertices" it looks different here.
I cannot select the vertices like your are doing. I am pressing 'C' and then dragging the circle down.
Do you have an idea what i could have done wrong or which step i could have missed?
Or should i rather start over again.
Thanks for all your help.
EDIT: i thought that up to this point everything should have been correct:
|
|
By rosuckmedia - 5 Years Ago
|
@4u2ges
Thank you for the great tutorial:)
Here is my result
Best regards Robert
|
|
By 4u2ges - 5 Years Ago
|
@wires
Thank you Gerry :)
@toystorylab
Knock-Knock.. Who is there? Mr. Blender... :hehe:
@3dtester - Thanks!
You are selecting only visible vertices, because you did not disable "Limit to visible only" (name of this setting is quite confusing - it is basically an Xray in Edit mode).
You have to disable "Limit to visible only" as shown on the right. This way you'd be able to select back faces/edges/vertices from the front.
@rosuckmedia - Thanks!
Looks good. The only problem I see, is that the cable snaps out of Capsule lock.
This because Driver Sphere at this point should have already been rotated more counter-clockwise
Cable does not have enough flexibility to react that fast to sharp turns. In part because it is being dragged on a rigid floor.
In general, animation should be crafted very carefully. Without forcing cable to make extreme, sharp turns/twists. And done maybe slower than normal.
It can be speed up afterward, when animation is baked into Soft Cloth track.
So it should be more like:
Also, do NOT hide rigid body objects (Capsules, Spheres). Physics for not visible rigid objects do not work well.
If you need to hide them, convert them to Dummies instead.
Update
So here... If driver is animated properly, you may even *lift* some physics restrictions and even play animation in realtime.
I have attached this project as a demo: https://www.dropbox.com/s/xubvc67ckbcm0m4/Flex_test.zip?dl=0
|
|
By rosuckmedia - 5 Years Ago
|
Hello 4u2ges
Thanks for the tip.:)
Greetings rosuckmedia
|
|
By toystorylab - 5 Years Ago
|
|
4u2ges (5/10/2020)
I have attached this project as a demo
Thanx ;)
|
|
By 3dtester - 5 Years Ago
|
@4u2ges, thanks for the enlightenment!
Happily done with the Blender part. I like the 2.80 UI a bit more though ;)
iClone plays well with my attempt. The 'tube' proofs itself quite robust :cool:
|
|
By 4u2ges - 5 Years Ago
|
@4u2ges, thanks for the enlightenment! Happily done with the Blender part. I like the 2.80 UI a bit more though  iClone plays well with my attempt. The 'tube' proofs itself quite robust 
I got attached to 2.79. Can't break the relationship in favor of 2.8.
There are couple of things I do not like about this version.
One in particular, your favorite now "Limit selection to visible".
Well yeah, in 2.82 they renamed it to Xray and moved it to the top (it says - undocumented operator :ermm:).
But damn it! It does not have a shortcut and I cannot figure out how to make one. :angry:
I keep switching it constantly while working with the mesh and I made a shortcut for it in 2.79.
Let me know If anyone knows how to make a keyboard shortcut for this Xray button in Blender 2.82
|
|
By 3dtester - 5 Years Ago
|
Okay, i don't have a video yet, but here's a still render.
It is of course somewhat difficult to animate this :crying:
|
|
By Rampa - 5 Years Ago
|
The shape of your end effector will make a big difference. Using spheres, the cable will be able rotate around them. But cubes will will pretty-much lock-out any rotation. You can also do cylinders, giving rotation in one degree only.
This may help for animating, as you can point the cable where you want by adjusting the effector.
|
|
By 4u2ges - 5 Years Ago
|
Nice render 3dtester.
Yep, Rampa is right. You may just change the Bound Type to Box (regardless of shape of the lock - it can still be a ball or a capsule or whatever).
Just need to be a little more careful with animation, not to fold the tube as it would stop revolving.
In addition, for a better handling of the tube with 2 hands, you may add a pocket in the middle of the tube (or where ever you need it).
Here in Blender I duplicated 4 slices of the tube, moved it to appropriate location and attached it to the main body (by connecting with regular faces).
Then again hid those faces by the mean of opacity map so that it is invisible.
As you see, now I can independently animate the End and the Middle pocket locks. So you may use 2 hands to do it I suppose.
In addition, you may change the mid pocket lock to box type also, so that is would not swing inside the hand.
(With a couple of more pockets and shaping and texturing of the tube appropriately you can make a snake I suppose. Possibilities are endless.)
OK. So I do not know what Zane was trying to do there. But certainly not to fill up a gas tank. :)
I only animated Zane here with End and Mid locks (both are box type) linked to his hands. Only at the end I lowered a little the very top lock to give some slack there.
|
|
By 3dtester - 5 Years Ago
|
Not that it seems not possible, but... :ermm:
|
|
By Rampa - 5 Years Ago
|
@3DTester
I would reverse the tube, or rather the weight map of it. Use black to anchor it to nozzle, and an internal lock at the pump end. I think it will be more durable that way.
|
|
By 4u2ges - 5 Years Ago
|
You are pretty much close.
I wish I could see the locks location. Looks like you have another one in the middle somewhere.
But regardless, there is only one reason for snapping out - forcing/moving cable against law of physics.
Take a look at 0:32. The tube is about to fold because it has nowhere to go.
The main line (after the fold point and up) has to be moved outward a bit to release tension and pressure (that is what would have happened in real life).
Again, I am not sure where the locks are, their position, angle and shape. And also camera angle does not allow to see whole picture.
There are other ways to operate/tweak cable/tube - external rigid objects animated on the fly to push it externally one way or another.
You can sure use weight map to permanently lock one end. And it might or might not help. Since the tension is still there, it might just force the tube to fold.
Bottom line - while *driving* the tube, you should watch for tensions and release it where necessary. Tube has to be *relaxed* and natural during whole animation.
|
|
By 3dtester - 5 Years Ago
|
Thanks for your support guys.
I use the sphere lock, plus 2 small capsule locks.
But now i found one big issue, which i can change easily.
Since the tube is pretty long, i had previously rotated it slightly forward.
This could be the main 'physical law' break (besides that the nozzle raises from below ground ;))
Now the tube is at 90 degrees, which it should have always been.
|
|
By 4u2ges - 5 Years Ago
|
That looks much better :) Be waiting for the full animation.
Meantime, I'll be doing my own retro short with gas station pump (maybe I'll just blow it up - I mean if there is a gas station, there has to be a big bang :w00t:)
Hopefully, I will pull it through, cause I did abandon a lot of projects due to lack of time and the will to finish :Whistling:
|
|
By kungphu - 5 Years Ago
|
|
Wow! This is stellar work. Can’t wait to start playing with this.:)
|
|
By 4u2ges - 5 Years Ago
|
|
kungphu (5/23/2020)
Wow! This is stellar work. Can’t wait to start playing with this.:)
Thanks and looking forward for your workout :)
|
|
By rosuckmedia - 5 Years Ago
|
Hallo 3dtester,
Looks Good,:)
Hallo 4u2ges
I'm looking forward to your project:)
Best regards rosuckmedia
|
|
By 3dtester - 5 Years Ago
|
4u2ges (5/23/2020)
That looks much better :) Be waiting for the full animation. Meantime, I'll be doing my own retro short with gas station pump (maybe I'll just blow it up - I mean if there is a gas station, there has to be a big bang :w00t:) Hopefully, I will pull it through, cause I did abandon a lot of projects due to lack of time and the will to finish :Whistling:
That's a lovely scene.
I'd be happy to watch the outcome :)
PS: so i am not the only one with an ever growing number of unfinished projects :satisfied:
Thanks @rosuckmedia
|
|
By 4u2ges - 5 Years Ago
|
@3dtester
@rosuckmedia
Thanks guys, we'll see what happens :)
|
|
By toystorylab - 5 Years Ago
|
|
3dtester (5/23/2020)
Nice use of that cable/rope...
|
|
By toystorylab - 5 Years Ago
|
|
4u2ges (5/23/2020)
(maybe I'll just blow it up - I mean if there is a gas station, there has to be a big bang :w00t:)
Looking forward to that big bang! :D
|