keeping objects on a poly surface

Introduction to Maya - Modeling Fundamentals Vol 2

This course will look in the fundamentals of modeling in Maya with an emphasis on creating good topology. It's aimed at people that have some modeling experience in Maya but are having trouble with complex objects.

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# 1 22-02-2009 , 06:21 PM

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Join Date: Jul 2006

Location: London

Posts: 567

Hey, Basically I'm looking for a way to have objects (polyCylinders in this case) move around but stay on a poly surface (polyPlane), I have expressions on the cylinders to make them randomly move.

Now one technique could possibly be to geometryConstrain the cylinders to the surface, however I have tested this technique and it doesn't give very accurate results.

Can anyone think of another way of going about this, I'm guessing something could be done by getting the normal data from all the faces of the poly surface but I'm not sure what my next step would be.

Many thanks, Chris

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# 2 23-02-2009 , 07:51 AM

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Join Date: May 2005

Location: Manchester Uk

Posts: 6,300

You could use instanced particles and goals with a custom attribute expression to control the offest of the objects using the surface normal.

That should do the job, as you can get them to randomly move over the surface using rand on the goal U and V's.

"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

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