Makin' a kite. What aproach to use?
 

Hi There.

This is not a Dynamics question only.

First I need to say that I'm not looking for specefic answers.
Nor am I looking for someone to apply me with a tutorial.
I'm merely looking for inspiration and directions in what aproach to start
out with (so I don't work in the wrong direction for days).

The case:
In a few days I'm starting to work on a music video.
I'm going to make a KITE. The live shot will be of a boy
running and playing with this kite (a live one), at a point in
time, the string snaps and the kite flyes away. The kite will now
fly around in the sky at will of the air, over rooftops, behind buildings,
up and down and so forth.

The scenes with the loose kite will CGI and thus be my work.

The CGI kite will be the only CGI in the shot, and it will allways be far away in the picture.
It will be the object of focus, but regarding the level of photo realism, the distance to the object
will work in my favour.

At a point in time, the kite may pass in front of the sun and should behave
like it's made of a translucent material and turn into a silluete.

The kite is one of those rombeshaped ones with cross sticks inside them, and a tail of colered
ribbons.


Now the questions:
Q1. What aproach is the best for these shots regarding the kites behavour?
Should I use MAYA Cloth? Shold I use Softbodies? I'm thinking of using
softbodies with goals to do the kite.

Q2: How do I get that oscilating thing happining to the tail, when the wind
streams along it? Like a very high fequented sinus wave runing though it?
Should I make a hair? Shold I make a very thin tube and make it soft with goals,
then deform the original tube with a sinus wave deformer?

Q3: In what direction should I look reagrding to translucent materials?
Is it easy to setup or should I download some shaders?



Thank You.
Daniel.

You could use the Mental Ray Dielectric materials, then of course you would have to render in mental ray, a better option would be to just play with the transparancy of a blinn material (or whatever material you choose)

Softbodies sounds good for the kite material, but if its that far way in the shot would you really notice the movement of the material??

If you can a hair fmight tbe the best option as softbodies and springs can stretch an be quite unpredictable. To ainmate the tail just use fields or a wave deformer and fields (like turbulance)

Just some ideas