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# 1 05-08-2008 , 01:18 PM
Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Wellington
Posts: 34

Animating giant slingshot

Hey forum, I landed this job at an adrenaline ride in town which basically means sitting around waiting for a customer to send up into the air in a giant slingshot (it's not legal suicide, you get strapped in). I bought a new laptop and Maya 8.5 to get into modeling again and have been building a polygon model of the ride and its surroundings.

user added image
user added image

Since it's come along kind of well and accurate to the actual place I decided I wanted to apply some animation to the slingshot itself. The ride is powered by a winch that draws the ropes in underneath and creates massive tension on the chords while the tubular chair is being held back by a metallic pin insert. When tension is full the pin releases and the ride is sent high into the air at a fast speed and bounces around like crazy... Like this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg12RQ83fjE

It's been a while since I rigged a character, and I wanted to know what the best way to rig it would be. Do I use a whole lot of joints rooting to the middle and set the stats to calibrate some tension?

Much appreciation to help X)

Rollie


'Sup Jono.