Vines Growing Test

[DigiLusionist]

This is an animation test I did a while back that employs endomorphs combined with an animated skelegons chain and object dissolving.

[fourd]

Cool animation. I've used morphs with bones before for animating things like a phone cord or extension cord, but nothing like you have done.

Would you be willing to share your scene/lwo's? I would really like to investigate your technique.

Nice job. Very Jack-n-the-Beanstalk like.

Donald

[DigiLusionist]

Sure, here you go:

[DigiLusionist]

For those of you who don't like to download .zip files, here's the same anim as a .gif:

[policarpo]

thanks for the scene, but it's missing the vine .lwo file. :)

[DigiLusionist]

Sorry about that, I thought it was in the .zip file from earlier...

[policarpo]

super cool!! thanks!

[oxyg3n]

Wow,

I havnt looked at the scene yet but that gif sure looks cool. Thanks for sharing your scene with us.

[oxyg3n]

Ok,
Now I looked at the file and cant believe how simple this is to do! This is my little test. I didnt do any leaves though:

[DigiLusionist]

bipitty boppity boo...

[riki]

Very Cool, thanks for sharing

[ChrisS]

That's what's great about the Newtek bunch!
It's about people helping people.
Thanks!

[SplineGod]

HEREs (http://www.3dtrainingonline.com/examples/phonecord.zip) something that will allow you to still morph the vine but easily tweak its path while it grows.

[Hellbring]

I have been trying to get that useing morphed positions to work but it wont work for me... I have to be missing something simple but i cant figure ot what it is. Here is the files that I made to try it out.

[DigiLusionist]

I just checked this and found the following problems:

In Modeler, you prepositioned the skelegons into the path you want. Unfortunately, that won't work. The skelegons need to be straight along the path, sticking all the way along the length of the stretched morph. You can even make the skelegons extend far beyond the morph and set the Morph % in Layout (using MorphMixer to greater than 100%).

In Layout, you set a keyframe at Frame 0 for the morph to be at 100%. It needs to be set at 100% at Frame 60 or 90.

Once the morph is set, you can select the bones and rotate their positions to create the path you want the morph to follow.

I took the liberty of changing the object to a SubD object with surface smoothing and specularity.

Otherwise, you did the right things. ESPECIALLY going into the Bones Properties panel and set the bones to Use Morphed Positions!

[Hellbring]

thanx for the help. The tutorial I was looking at said nothing about keeping the skelegons straight it actually showed them drawn wavy.

[DigiLusionist]

Glad to help. I'll pass that on to Mark. It's an important tidbit to include in the tutorial.

[Hellbring]

question about this again. I got it to work but doesnt seem to like if I use a weight map. It seems to be acting like the morph is still at 0% and all the bones that are within the geometry at that point. The bones that are outside the base endomorph area do not effect it. It works 100% if I dont use a map but it messes up the geometry around it.

[DigiLusionist]

I couldn't get your scene to open. It keep crashing my Layout. So, I redid the scene (attached).

In Modeler, I didn't find any skelegons. I made some for the scene I attached.

I experimented with using Use Weight Map Only in Layout, and you're right. It doesn't work as well. I turned that off for the scene.

[Hellbring]

Weird seems to work how I want it in the scene that you sent me. I wonder if the computer at work is all messed up. Guess Ill try and redo it on this computer.

Are you useing 7.5 or 7.5c? The file I posted before was in 7.5 I just tried it again at home on 7.5c and it works perfectly fine with a weight map.

Do the bones have to stay in the model? I made them with skelegons then after importing into layout I got rid of the bones for the hell of it.

[Hellbring]

nm i figured out what i did wrong

[Rich]

This is an awsome thread. I am doing a similar project and I need to do this same exact thing. Thanks a lot!

[ASCIISkull]

Originally posted by DigiLusionist In Modeler, you prepositioned the skelegons into the path you want. Unfortunately, that won't work. The skelegons need to be straight along the path, sticking all the way along the length of the stretched morph.

You could always draw the skelegons in whatever shape you want, activate them, and then set all of their rest positions to zero in bone properties. That way you can model the path a lot more easily.

[daveythegravy73]

Hi DigiLusionist,

I love the scene. Could this technique be used to mimic a Snail Trail.

Thanx Man.

Best Wiahes

daveythegravy

[sKb875]

Woo! That looks soo awesome! Very real. :D Great job.

[SplineGod]

Another method is to use it to create splines and use them as particle emitters with nozzle set to object - vertices. Apply HVs to this and you can do growing vines very easily with the ability to use gradients to change color, size and surface properties.
HERES (http://www.3dtrainingonline.com/examples/vines.avi) an example.

[sKb875]

Ohh, that sounds pretty easy. :D I gotta try it sometime.