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Dynamic on Skeletons

This Tutorial shows you how to get Dynamics with IK Skeletons.

Step1.

            You need to create the control object that will drive the IK. For this, we'll use a cylinder.

            -     MODEL > Get > Primitive > Poly Mesh > Cylinder
            -     Change the U/V to 3,3

* NOTE * -> Its very important to set the V value correctly in order to get the best result. If your chain will contain 5 bones, then you have to set the V's to 5. So # of bones = # of V's

            -    We don't need any base subdivision so we set this to 1
            -    Scale the Cylinder to make it long and skinny
            -    Translate the Center to the position of where the Root will be, In this case, the top of the
                  cylinder

Step 2.

            You now need to create the Skeleton. Don't forget that the number of V's should match the number of bones. In this case since we put a 3, you'll need to create an IK with 3 bones.

           -     ANIMATE > Create > Skeleton > Draw 2D chain -> place the root where the
                    cylinders Center is, and create a new bone at each V segment of the Cylinder, with
                    the effector at the bottom most segment of the cylinder

Step 3

            You now need to constrain your IK to the objects clusters and constrain the object to the IK

            -      Select the cylinder
            -      Tag the 2nd set of Segments (POINT mode) on theCylinder and create a cluster
                   (CLUSTER button bottom right of MCA/MCP under the EDIT button
            -      Tag the 3rd set of Segments (POINT mode) on the Cylinder and create another
                    cluster
            -      Tag the last set of segments (POINT mode) of the cylinder and create another
                    cluster
            -      Select the Cylinder in Object mode (object should be white) and CONSTRAIN
                    POSITION to the root of the IK (MCA/MCP > Constrain > Position)
            -      Select the second bone of the Skeleton and Constrain to Cluster "POINT"
                   (MCA/MCP > Constrain > Object to Cluster )
            -      Select the third bone of the Skeleton and Constrain to Cluster "POINT1"
            -      Select the effector and constrain to Cluster "POINT2"

Step 4.

            You now need to apply Cloth and Gravity to the object

            -       Select all the points on the cylinder EXCEPT the first set (top most points
                    should NOT be part of selection)
            -       SIMULATE > Create > Cloth > From Selection
            -       Set the Mass to 50
            -       Set the Friction to .007
            -       Set the Bend to 0
            -       Set the Stretch to 1000
            -       SIMULATE > Get > Force > Gravity
            -       Set the Gravity to 100

Step 5.

            You are now ready to animate the IK

            -      Select IK in Branch and set some Translation keys over a period of time.

* NOTE * -> If you plan on having the animation longer than the default 100 frames, you'll need to set the END FRAME of the Cloth simulation. Also note that you can set noise and other attributes in the Cloth PPG.