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# 1 15-01-2011 , 02:33 PM
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Free Friday Tutorial #4: Chain by Duplication Along a Path

Simply Maya - Chain by Duplication Along a Path on Vimeo

This week we take a look at how you can use Maya’s animation tools in modeling to create a chain, a very useful technique which can save you a lot of time. You’ll learn how to create an individual chain link and a motion path with the CV curve tool, then use Maya’s attach to motion path and create animation snapshot options to duplicate the link along the path with twist to get a realistic looking chain.

- Motion Path with CV Curve Tool
- Curve Parametrization & Rebuilding Curves
- Animation Tools in Modeling
- Attach Objects to Motion Path
- Duplication & Twist at Individual Key Frames
- Animation Snapshot Options

Try this one it's a handy tip that might just save you a lot of time.
Thanks to Rick (ctbram) for creating the tutorial,

Dave


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# 2 15-01-2011 , 06:47 PM
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A useful tool to know, I used this on my tank tread........well done Rick...........dave




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# 3 16-01-2011 , 04:42 PM
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I could have used this when modeling my park! Maybe I'll redo the chain with this technique since its the one thing I didn't really like about my model.
Thanks for this!

# 4 01-08-2011 , 12:02 PM
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Thanks Rick...great and informative as usual...I finally got to watch it all the way through!!!!

cheers bullet


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# 5 18-01-2012 , 05:38 PM
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Thats a nice trcik. But, don't try this after you isolate the curve and the object to duplicate. It took my 1.5 hours to figure out whats wrong. The next day i opened my project and the duplicates were there ! Ofc no isolation...

# 6 27-08-2014 , 01:46 AM
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Chain link bunching

I'm having trouble with this guide. The links on my chain are bunched at the beginning and end - they aren't evenly spaced along the CV curve.
I'm presuming there is something I need to change in the graph editor, but I don't know what.

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# 7 27-08-2014 , 09:40 PM
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Did you rebuild the curve like Rick said?.................dave




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# 8 02-09-2014 , 11:02 PM
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Indeed I did:

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# 9 02-09-2014 , 11:06 PM
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Not really sure what else I must be missing/doing wrong. I've followed the guide word for word so far.

# 10 02-10-2014 , 05:34 PM
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If it helps, here's a zip of the file

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File Type: zip Knife chain.zip (169.1 KB, 573 views)
# 11 02-10-2014 , 07:36 PM
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# 12 02-10-2014 , 09:48 PM
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Select the first link then go to animate/graph editor, with the graph editor open select the curve in the graph edit and go to tangents/spline..............dave

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