Hello all,

I've been working on a Birdwing Rig and got to a stage where I want to add some dynamics to the outer feathers to get that overlapping action when the wings flap.

I've tried using Maya hair - placing a dynamic curve on each feather and turning it into a spline IK etc. This works ok when the wing is flapping in the Z axis and there is no other translation - the feather bends how I want it to in a straight line.

The problem occurs when the feathers are fanned together (rotating in the Y axis), to fold the wing during its flap cycle. The dynamics cause the feathers to bend side to side like a waggling tail - not the look i'm going for as the feathers should be rigid along their width and bend along the length only.

I've also tried using soft bodies and springs - same problem; the feather bends in all directions, and not just down the length.

What I want to know is if there is a way to constrain the dynamics so the particles can move in only one direction so it bends along the length and not from side to side.

I've tried a couple of runtime expressions, and thinking about using rigid bodies with a hinge constraint, but this seems a bit of a long winded solution.

Thanks in advance

JD