Hi Fenric,
Thank you for the heads up, and thank you for responding personally.
In the event that I am able to uninstall 8.5, and reinstall 8.1, do you feel that I
would be able to achieve what I am after with ERC tools?
It is important to note that “snaking” is the motion, but not the actual object. Ultimately, I am after
animating a catheter in a tortuous vessel. Distortions in the diameter of the catheter must be miniscule. I was not able to view the worm example in action, but
a worm is a fairly forgiving structure, compared to a catheter.
8.1 with ERC can help you do what you want, yes. Setting it up will not be trivial, as you are asking for a significantly non-trivial result. The ultimate problem is that you want a combination of following a path, and a delayed response from each step. ERC provides a delay function, but you will have to set it up for each segment: if you have a hundred segments, then you will have to configure a hundred delays - and you might have to tweak them several times.
I don’t want you to spend money (and time) that you don’t need to, so I have to ask:
If you have 8.5, have you tried using soft-body physics instead? It might be easier to get your item to react the way you want using that, though you will be at the mercy of the simulation. Keyframe the head of the catheter, and attach the rest of the “tail” to it, then let physics do the work? I don’t know exactly how you would set that up, but it might be worth a try.
Perhaps someone would like to take a crack at improving it. Seems I have figured out some basics, but I am getting kinking in the vertex model during the travel.
Hi Fenric,
Thank you for the heads up, and thank you for responding personally.
In the event that I am able to uninstall 8.5, and reinstall 8.1, do you feel that I
would be able to achieve what I am after with ERC tools?
It is important to note that “snaking” is the motion, but not the actual object. Ultimately, I am after
animating a catheter in a tortuous vessel. Distortions in the diameter of the catheter must be miniscule. I was not able to view the worm example in action, but
a worm is a fairly forgiving structure, compared to a catheter.
One is a meat tube and the other a rubberized tube. Unless it’s segmented metal or something. What kind of component shapes are you looking at?
8.1 with ERC can help you do what you want, yes. Setting it up will not be trivial, as you are asking for a significantly non-trivial result. The ultimate problem is that you want a combination of following a path, and a delayed response from each step. ERC provides a delay function, but you will have to set it up for each segment: if you have a hundred segments, then you will have to configure a hundred delays - and you might have to tweak them several times.
I don’t want you to spend money (and time) that you don’t need to, so I have to ask:
If you have 8.5, have you tried using soft-body physics instead? It might be easier to get your item to react the way you want using that, though you will be at the mercy of the simulation. Keyframe the head of the catheter, and attach the rest of the “tail” to it, then let physics do the work? I don’t know exactly how you would set that up, but it might be worth a try.
Hi Fenric,
Thank you again for the response. I have not tried soft-body physics. I will look into it.
Thankfully, this question is not tied to any current project…..but it will come up again.
If you decide to go with a rigged object, the more polys the better (within reason). If you use too few, the object won’t bend nicely, it’ll kink and bulge. The trade off is that if it’s too high poly, your machine could get sluggish when manipulating the rigged object. You’ll want to experiment a bit to see what works.
There’s a couple other things to help keep your model from distorting. Weight painting can help with mesh distortions in your rigged object. You could also limit the movement constraints so that the object can only bend to the point just before it distorts. If you’re still getting distortions, maybe you need more bones in the rig.
If it where me I would use HEXAGON! . there one and use the line tools to make your twisting Spiral PATH the Add a surface function to it. like a circle or whatever. THEN what is cool it that if your are using restricted or full DYNAMICS you can adjust the LINE path..
NOW in Carrara I had to model a bunch of NERVES in a HAND to illustrate a carpal tunnel animation.
I use a very long tapering CONE that had many many segment THEN attached a bones rig. THEN bent it all around the other structures needed.
Then when happy I EXPORTED the NREVE object so it was a FIXED object, import in back in.. What was cool I did in Carrara was then I could use a BONES rig to manipulate the rest of the hand that included the nerves..
If it where me I would use HEXAGON! . there one and use the line tools to make your twisting Spiral PATH the Add a surface function to it. like a circle or whatever. THEN what is cool it that if your are using restricted or full DYNAMICS you can adjust the LINE path..
NOW in Carrara I had to model a bunch of NERVES in a HAND to illustrate a carpal tunnel animation.
I use a very long tapering CONE that had many many segment THEN attached a bones rig. THEN bent it all around the other structures needed.
Then when happy I EXPORTED the NREVE object so it was a FIXED object, import in back in.. What was cool I did in Carrara was then I could use a BONES rig to manipulate the rest of the hand that included the nerves..
Unless it’s segmented metal or something. What kind of component shapes are you looking at?
