Wire problems

[JDM]

Hey people,

I'm new here, I'm a student at Bournemouth University, doing my MA Digital Effects.

For my current project I was inspired by the a scene from this years OFFF trailer.

OFFF 2011

The specific scene('s) can be found at 02.38-02.53 and 04.45-04.50.

but, these are quite static, I want to make these vessels move trough the environment and interact with geometry (debris, maybe even actors).

I planned to use Houdini Wires, but I cant seem to animate the wires to move trough space.

making a curve into a wire is not specifically hard, but when I want to move the constraint to drag it trough environments (and let it slide over a tube for the test) it doesn't do anything else then just hang there static, without moving an inch.

Any ideas how to do this (or other ways apart from wires that are better ?

Cheers

Jo

[sam.h]

, but when I want to move the constraint to drag it trough environments (and let it slide over a tube for the test) it doesn't do anything else then just hang there static, without moving an inch.

Dont move the constraint in DOPs, just move the wire object itself (the whole thing, in /obj or sops)

Make sure "Use Deforming Geometry" is ticked on the wire object in DOPs too.

Would be worth posting your scene

[JDM]

Would be worth posting your scene

Here you go,

it's just a testscene.

I want the wires to move along with the proby robot, and slide over the groundplane and tube

alienV5_001.hipnc.zip

thanks

[anim]

here is modified file

alienV5_fix.hipnc

[JDM]

here is modified file

Thank you very much,

Will look into it tomorrow so I can add it to more complex set up's

[JDM]

Ok, I'm back,

So I see what the issue was, some reorganising of the nodes, and setting the animation parameter solved the issues I had with the animation.

But a new problem shows up, one I had before as well, it seems that moving the cables also affects the "duplicate" node, the cables seem to widen up as if underwater while moving, and, as far as I can make out it,s not something that has to do with force or so, it seems the duplicate node is to blame.

alienV5_001_move_002.hipnc

[sam.h]

The problem is that at the time the wire is simulated, there is only 1 of them. That gets simulated & cached; then you rotate it ~180 degrees, so the motion is backwards. This causes the widening effect as all of the wires have the same motion as the one trailing, which makes the pushing out effect.

So, use the duplicate SOP before the dopimport and all of your wires will be simulated properly (in the right space)

I have attached your scene, I just moved the duplicate node to before the dopimport so it gets into the simulation... a bunch of other things like making a roots group for the constraint to make it easier...

I only did the big cables, you can compare to the small ones

Sam.6844.hipnc

[JDM]

Thanks, works like a charm.

[JDM]

OK,

Concept was asked to be changed, robots will be replaced by a huge mop.

So thing is I changed from working with a curve to working with a line, which gave me more freedom when it came to points.

But it also gave lots of weird issues.

I can't seem to use the duplicate, because then all lines seem to connect themselves to each other.

secondly from time to time the lines start moving by themselves when they should be resting.

and lastly is there a way to give more realistic "weight" to the wires, so they act more like the heavy cotton wires on real mops, since the parameters fro; the wire itself seem to not do the trick as well as I would wish

cheers

Jo

mopTest_4.hipnc

[Jason]

I haven't had time to look into a solution, but this must be a classic signature line: "Concept was asked to be changed, robots will be replaced by a huge mop."

[JDM]

any ideas someone ?

[mawi]

OK,

Concept was asked to be changed, robots will be replaced by a huge mop.

So thing is I changed from working with a curve to working with a line, which gave me more freedom when it came to points.

But it also gave lots of weird issues.

I can't seem to use the duplicate, because then all lines seem to connect themselves to each other.

secondly from time to time the lines start moving by themselves when they should be resting.

and lastly is there a way to give more realistic "weight" to the wires, so they act more like the heavy cotton wires on real mops, since the parameters fro; the wire itself seem to not do the trick as well as I would wish

cheers

Jo

mopTest_4.hipnc

Here is a quick file.

Write the sim out before resampling the curves.

mop.hipnc

[JDM]

Oh thanks,

Is really working well, and gives the kind of look I was trying to achieve.

Cheers.

[JDM]

ok,

seems almost everything is working fine now.

the "only" thing that seems to continually not work is the following:

I converted the plastic pieces of the mop to a static object Rigid body, so the wires would interact with it while moving, but they continue to move all over it (and they also collide witch each other, even though it is set they shouldn't)

I set the Volume divisions right (I think), but that doesn't seem to do anything

cheers

Jo

mopmodel.hipnc.zip