Question about lock wired animation

[ChangYuan.HoWP98M]

Good day everyone,

I am currently working on a lock wired animation with both of the front and back of a single wire putting thorough two different holes of the machine thread plug:

and the end result will look something like this 

 

 

I need someone to give me some advise or tips on this for this animation. thanks

 

[ChangYuan.HoWP98M]

This will be the end product of the animation:-

 Hope this will give you a clearer picture of what i have mentions above, thank you.

[leeminardi]

Please post a question in only one forum.  You currently have posted a similar question in the 3ds Max forum.

Please see the attached file.  I created a helix and converted it to an editable spline and then found its length (378mm) via Utilities, Measure.  A dummy object with a path constraint is associated with the spline.  A circle  with Extrude and Path Deform modifiers are applied to the circle. A wire parameter associates the Stretch parameter to the percent along path position of the dummy.  A separate cylinder is used for the straight portion of the wire.  The height of the cylinder shortens as a function of the position of the dummy through the use of another wire parameter.   The helix was converted to a spline anticipating the need to manipulate the spline shape to pass it through a bolt head.

[ChangYuan.HoWP98M]

 

Hi lee.minardi,  thank you for replaying me but from what i can see on the pictures above, it's a single line wire connected to a circle. is it possible to do an animation like this? 

 

 

 

 

It's sunday over here and i have to wait till i get back to the office to open the file you attached, I apologize. 

 

[leeminardi]

The file I posted twisted.04 is the wrong file.  I need to fix it and will repost a newer version later.

Although you consider it one wire the image you show can be considered as two wires.  To animate it I would consider several stages.  For example, a U shape wire passing through the nut then the helical twisting stage.  I'll give it some more thought later today if possible.   

[ChangYuan.HoWP98M]

Yes for the U sharpe wire i can attach 2 dummy to both vertex points of the spline and move through the holes but it is what come after going through the hole, I need to somehow twist the wire but twist modifiers will not work in this case because it will twist the whole wire which is not i wanted.

[leeminardi]

I think I'm getting close.  It took a bit of work and there's some fine tuning but the concept has potential.

Check it out!

[ChangYuan.HoWP98M]

Please see the attached file.  I created a helix and converted it to an editable spline and then found its length (378mm) via Utilities, Measure.  A dummy object with a path constraint is associated with the spline.  A circle  with Extrude and Path Deform modifiers are applied to the circle. A wire parameter associates the Stretch parameter to the percent along path position of the dummy.  A separate cylinder is used for the straight portion of the wire.  The height of the cylinder shortens as a function of the position of the dummy through the use of another wire parameter.   The helix was converted to a spline anticipating the need to manipulate the spline shape to pass it through a bolt head.

I tried to re-crate what you did but it didn't work, this wire parameter is kind of new to me, I did what you stated but the circle will not attach to the dummy for some reason. This is only for practice, by no mean I am an animator, I am just a 3d artist but my company still require me to do so...

[ChangYuan.HoWP98M]

Thank you so much stranger, thank you for taking part of your precious time helping a stranger like me, i am truly grateful and thankful toward you but the thing is i cannot re crate what you did because wire parameter is new to me...

[ChangYuan.HoWP98M]

Can you please explain to me how did you work that out?

[leeminardi]

I will be away from my CAD computer for a couple of days after which I hope to post a video of how to make the animation of the twisting wires.

To have the loose ends of the wire move in space as they are positioned through the hex nuts is very difficult to manage.  An alternative approach is to create a spline that is in the final shape of the configuration you want and then use Extrude and Path Deform modifiers that are associated with a wire parameter to dynamically reveal their trajectory.  A very simple version is provided in the attached Max file.  A spline and a helix were converted to Editable Splines and then attached to form one spline.  Please let me know if you think this approach would be satisfactory.  Its implementation would be much easier.

[ChangYuan.HoWP98M]

I would appreciate if you could upload a video step by step. thank you.

[ChangYuan.HoWP98M]

What is the point of putting cylinder under dummy?

how do you accurately calculate the expression stretch?

How do you make object disappeared?

[leeminardi]

Please answer the question I asked in message #11.  I think it would be much easier for you to use as you have limited experience with Max

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@ChangYuan.HoWP98M wrote:

What is the point of putting cylinder under dummy?

 The cylinder is used to model the wire that is not part of the twisting helix.  Technically, the dummy is not necessary as the cylinder could have the Path Constraint controller applied to it.  Using the dummy gives me extra flexibility.

how do you accurately calculate the expression stretch?

For the twisting wire I consider its total length to be the lenght of the helix plus a little more so that there is some wire left over after the twisting is done.  I don't have access to the file right now but if I remember correctly the helix is 110.5 long.  If we assume the total length is 130 then the expression for the height of the cylinder would be:

130 - percent * 110.5

At the start of the twisting the cylinder if is (130 - 0.0 * 110.5) = 130.

When the twisting is halfway through the helix the cylinder height is (130 - .5*110.5) .

How do you make object disappeared? 

The only object I made to "disappear" is a cylinder.  I did this by changing its height to zero.  With some renderers you can use a visibility track as I outline here.

If you are using Arnold then you may have to resort to the method I demo here. 

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[ChangYuan.HoWP98M]

Apology I may have miss out your message#11, yes it's easier for me to recreate what you done on
spline animation.01.max but I need to model a plyer to twist and turn the wire instead of showing it magically appear from top to bottom.
The thing is that wire parameter is kinda new to me for someone who have been using Maya for quite sometime and i have not idea how this thing work, plus I'm not an animator specialist who needed to use this function until recently, I don't mind learning new stuff but there's no one or online tutorial to look for and the only hope is to seek help from the expert or specialist in this forum. I really appreciate your time and effort in helping me but is it possible for you to record into a video and show it to me step by step? Maybe this is too much to ask for you but if you could I truly appreciate your generosity.

[leeminardi · Accepted solution]

Here's a step by step Youtube video tutorial I just created of how to animate the twisting of a pair of wires.

https://youtu.be/p4ZbpTr4HdA

 You should be able to easily add a "plyer " that spins and move with the twisting portion of the wires.

As for the snaking of the wire through the nuts, I think ta good approach would be to have the end of the wire's position animate rather than have the wire dragged through the holes as you would see in a sewing sequence. 

Good luck! 

[ChangYuan.HoWP98M]

Thank you so much, you don't know how much this mean to me but you just save a stranger butt. Although this isn't much of a return for all your effort, I will promise you that I will work harder to become a better 3d artist in return for your kindness and effort and of course I will help others too. The world wound be a better place with people like you around.