Animating a Marionette with cords

Introduction to Maya - Modeling Fundamentals Vol 1

This course will look at the fundamentals of modeling in Maya with an emphasis on creating good topology. We'll look at what makes a good model in Maya and why objects are modeled in the way they are.

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# 1 23-02-2004 , 11:40 AM

Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2004

Posts: 1

Hi.
I would like to animate a Marionette. It should be controlled by it´s strings. First thing I tried was to connect a softbody wtih joints. like in a tutorial at 3dcafe:
https://www.3dcafe.com/asp/tutorials/maya/cord/cord.asp
But how can I fix the length of a softbody?
For example, the cord is slack, you pull it and it´s going to be outstretched. Then the force should be transmitted to a connectet body part. If I do it like in the tutorial above, the softbody is getting longer and longer. I´m blind i think.
My teacher suggests to try it with the cloth module.
Any ideas how to make something like this quite realistic?
Thanks a lot.
Rama

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# 2 28-02-2004 , 03:52 PM

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Join Date: Oct 2003

Location: Ontario, Canada

Posts: 15

I've never actually attempted this, but I believe the solution you're looking for is called a spline IK. What I think this does is bend a spline along a bone rig "chain". I could be wrong on this though, but it might be a good starting point.

What I'd do is just make a really thin cylinder with lots of vertical segments. Then just make a long chain of bones going from the top of the cylinder to the bottom. Select both the bones and the cylinder and do a Skin/Soft Bind. Create a handle between the first and last joints. Now when you raise and lower the handle the chain should go slack to some degree.

If you're having trouble getting the chain to slack in the right direction, you can always pre-curve the chain a small amount during rigging, and then just overstretch the handle to make the rope go straight during animation.

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