rig splines?
 

Hello, only picked up Maya last week sp still trying get my head around workflows.

I have modelled a rope using a cv curve as a path for an extrude modifier. To animate the rope i have added bones and skin, but i wondered whether it would be possible to apply bones to the initial path, and simply animate this instead of the model. I have already deleted the history, removing the link between the model and its spline path, but i wondered whether using the path which has considerably fewer pollys than the model would be better practice.
Any thoughts would be great
cheers
Jim

did u rig your rope straight, or in a curved direction?


What ya using the rope for? If possible u may want to use nCloth.

After re-reading your question a few times.. I realize I dont really understand what you're asking?

you want to animate bones on a path without the model it's connected to?

Thanks for the reply, basically i have modelled a rope using extrude on a shape down a spline. Im not all too familiar with rigging techniques, so i tried to set up a line of bones (straight line)and i then attached an IK to these bones with skin. This doesnt provide great control, so i wondered if there was a better way to do this? I like in Maya how you can adjust the initial 'path' spline and it moves the model that is created from it.so i wondered if there was a prefered way of doing things that involved rigging this spline?

im probably completely off the ball with regards to fundamental working practices. feel free to mock and lecture!

the rope is basically for a CG balloon that i will require constant rigging access to, in order to animate this around an image i will be compositing the 3d onto
unsure what ncloth is>?
I honestly appreciate your help !

Ahhhhh I know what you're trying to do.

yeah.. it gets more complicated than just a IK spline when you want to move that way.. and Honestly.. I remember going over this 4 quarters ago for rigging a tail.. but I for the life of me cannot remember exactly how to do it or find my old files for reference.

I found this however. Focus on the tentacle part of the tutorial and adjust according to your rope and that looks like that will give you full control of your rope for your animation on the ballon.

ftp://ftp.futurenet.com/pub/arts/tut...61.tut_ock.pdf

and another

http://area.autodesk.com/forum/autod...dinosaur-tail/



nCloth is great. It simulates how cloth works. Rope is also cloth. Flags are cloth.. The way a car crashes and bends up.. cloth.. but think "hard cloth"

check video for example :D

YouTube - Maya nCloth Ballon

hope this helps

Thanks for your reply, i'm about to look at these links now.

I have used the reactor physics engine in 3DS before and i remember that you could create cool realistic simulations but then your only option would be to generate an animation. There wasnt much flexibility for incorporating rigs into the simulation that could then be modified after the animation was created. DO these sound like similar problems in Maya? Il have a go and see what i can do. Ive had some basic maya training but unfortunately i failed to cover this aspect of the software.

Thanks again, im going to get on the tentacle now