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ICE Workshop: Cobwebs

38 REPLIES 38
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Message 1 of 39
Anonymous
1528 Views, 38 Replies

ICE Workshop: Cobwebs

Hey all,

so this workshop is going to be split into three main stages:

1. create the main strands
2. create the secondary strands
3. add dynamics etc

For the first stage the goal is to choose a central position (center of the web) and shoot rays onto a surrounding surface. Afterwards strands should be created, which connect the hit location of the ray and the center of the web.

Wanted controls for the compound are:
a) number of the strands
b) center position
c) random angle for the strands
d) subdivision (as we want to deform the strands lateron)



Here's the scene I started with:

217.160.138.15/helge/ice/cob_web_start.scn

As usual: Ask your question in this thread, and feel free to comment or post ideas.

I'll try to answer question without presenting the final compound...

Good luck! 🙂
38 REPLIES 38
Message 2 of 39
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

this is what will be covered in the second stage of the workshop, to give you some idea:



Message 3 of 39
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

ok here's what we'll tackle for the last stage, deforming the strands by gravity...

Message 4 of 39
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

this one is awesome!
Message 5 of 39
CorneliusPorzig7031
in reply to: Anonymous

Hi all,
attached you find my solution to the first stage... at least I hope it is a solution...

What I did not figure out: Which axis is exposed in the compound?

Comments and advices are always welcome!

Cheers,
Cornelius

e36250a6a865a68b157c1e0e1e43237f.zip

Message 6 of 39
m0rph
in reply to: Anonymous

Corny, your zip only has a .scntoc when I open it here. No actual .scn file.
Message 7 of 39
CorneliusPorzig7031
in reply to: Anonymous

Hi Alan,
thanks for pointing it out. Zip programs are so hard to use... 😉

Now it is the correct file.

- Corny

b2625f84f0c16405a21aa3e4682a7896.zip

Message 8 of 39
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

Looks good Corny. I will wait though for some others to move onto the next stage.
Message 9 of 39
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

In for the first stage. I emitted particles from null and set their orientation with evenly interpolated array and added some variance. Then just emitted strands and set their length with raycast against the box.

Dynamics is gonna be fun 😛

Message 10 of 39
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

Very nice. I'll post instructions for the second stage sometime later today.
Message 11 of 39
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

Helge,
Thanks for such a cool workshop!
Can something like this be built with existing compounds? Here's a simple question..How do you flatten the emission from the null? or should i even use this approach?
I'm not much of a scripter, but i'd love to try and follow this workshop and I've learned a lot from your VIMEO tutorials.

p

Message 12 of 39
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

Hey pavanz,

glad you are in.

Yes, well, you can build these things with the existing compounds, however you are better off building the setup with core nodes.

Flattening the emission, I am not sure I understand. Maybe turn down the speed of the emitter?
Message 13 of 39
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

Allright.

So here we go for the second stage.

What we want to do in this stage is create the connecting lines between the ones we already have. To do so we need to create one particular compound, which I call

"Get Position On Strand".

What it does is it returns, given a StrandPosition array as well as a ratio (from 0 to 1) a position on the strand.

To do that you will have to

a) Find the segment the ratio is on (so find the two points the new point sits between)
b) Interpolate the two points based on the rest "ratio" inside of the segment.

I will post some details later if there are questions. Basically what this allows you to do is "refit" strands. To create a simple test scenario, just create one particle with a strand, and try to create another particle which sits somewhere on that strand. Once we figure that out, we can continue on building the connecting lines for the cobweb.

Good luck!
Message 14 of 39
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

for those of you having trouble with the placement of points on strands, here's a small explanation:

Message 15 of 39
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

Yeh, that's quite elaborate. However, I think using simple 0 to 1 ratio will distort the web if some of the base strands are much longer than others. I just made distance based system, which actually is almost identical in principle. It convolutes the dynamics part a bit though, since you need to store all the attachment locations individually.
Message 16 of 39
CorneliusPorzig7031
in reply to: Anonymous

This was tricky but I think I finally got it in the end. Thanks to the great explanation Helge.

8d6977dd30d846678e79347d1f7cd34a.zip

Message 17 of 39
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

Well it's a web all right. I'm kind of starting to hate how the strands work. Zero based arrays are hard enough for my brain and having to treat the first point differently every single time is even more taxing :p. I didn't do the subdivisions yet though. I need to figure how to do it cleanly.

Message 18 of 39
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

I was hoping to see more realistic and natural cobwebs, but very cool results guys.
Message 19 of 39
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

Heh, have to figure basics first before even trying to do anything natural.
Also, I might have had bit wrong approach previously. If I use one strand per segment instead of strand per entire circle, everything should be much simpler.
Message 20 of 39
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

I was hoping to see more realistic and natural cobwebs, but very cool results guys.


I guess before we can do anything naturally looking, we need to get the math right, but hey, we are progressing. 🙂

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