dynamic hoses / oil rig pumpjacks

[p_micah]

i linked up a pumpjack (that horsehead bobing up and down in the fields in TX) and need to know how to get the cables flowing right, they attach to the top of the head, and go (at a slight angle) to some pipes that are on the ground. not too sure how to animate the push/pull and lag in the cables as the pump does its thing.

any help / ideas

the other thing is dynamic hoses, saw a tutorial for this but it was for Maya, not helpful for us.

thanks,
m.

[Dodgy]

You want to use a string of quad polys (or 2 point polys if you don't care about twisting) and apply ClothFx to them, having a bone at each end to position the ends, and then using the Cotton (thin) preset in clothFx. Turn Stretch Limit (in the Advanced tab I think) down to 5% or something, and set gravity (in the Etc tab) to -9 in the Y axis.

Calculate the dynamics, then parent your hose to this proxy object. Apply the deformation plugin MetaLink to the hose and it should follow the motion of your polys...

[p_micah]

i was also thinking of using a string of bones, and the same IK i used to point all the components. then adding bone weights to get the bending/reaction i'm looking for.

these would work (i hope) for the hoses, but the steel cable going into the ground is another story i think. harder to explain. . .

thanks for the help!

m.

[p_micah]

the "hose" or poly chain doesn't want to react the same as the other pieces in the model as far as linking goes. while working on the cloth effect, i noticed that one end )altho) it follows closely, does not stay on track. not the way the pistons do. i feel that i'm getting close, just overlooking something maybe. not sure. . .

if i just need to buckle down and keep trying, don't be shy, just tell me to figure it out.

thanks,
m.

[prospector]

No-one here ever says 'Just figure it out'

well unless it's something that is in the manual, then you'll just see RTFM :D

I would go with bones tho

[Dodgy]

DO you have any skelegons in the proxy object? If you do, they won't be affected by the clothfx calculation, and will stay where the bones are, and will keep any nearby geometry in your hose in place. Once you have added the bones, delete the skelegons from your object and try it again...