Visual Effects

Project : Soft Body and Rigid Body Dynamics

Date Assigned: 03/04/04

Due Date: End of Quarter

Note:

In the case that you prefer some other dynamics tutorial other than the flag, you can work on particles found here: http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/courses/cse490ve/CurrentQtr/Projects/Project1/Project1.html

The tutorials from this page are from this page:

http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/courses/cse490ve/CurrentQtr/Administrative/outline.html

[Beware, these web pages are located in the 490ve class web. Updates made to the flag tutorial underneath will not show up on their web pages. Even though they might look deceptively similar…]

In this assignment we will be learning about Particle Collisions, Goals, Soft Bodies, Springs, Hard Bodies, and Constraints. This assignment contains two parts. The first part is to complete a waving flag tutorial which will introduce you to soft bodies, springs, constraints, and goals. It will also review some of the particle effects that we learned in the previous assignment. In the second part of the assignment each student will design a dynamic simulation using either Soft Bodies or Hard bodies.

Part 1 - Flag Tutorial

What you need

You will be completing a tutorial which demonstrates how to create a waving flag using Soft Bodies using the concepts you have learned from Using Maya Dynamics. In this tutorial, you will create a Soft body, learn to assign the particle goal weights, add springs to the soft body, and add dynamic fields to the body to create a realistic waving flag. You will also learn to create a surface emitter to create realistic looking rain. This tutorial will be available from the course web page. You will only be handing in the finished rendered product from each tutorial. Please don't wait until the last minute, as they may take a bit of time.

Turn-in

For this part of the project, you must submit an AVI movie file of the final rendered animation in 640x480 resolution.

Part 2 - Soft and Rigid Bodies

For this part of the assignment each person will try to create a dynamic simulation using either soft or rigid bodies. You should pick something that you have seen in real life, and try to re-create this using Maya dynamics. Try to pick a scenario that seems fun and challenging. Some possible dynamic simulations you could think about re-creating are: a bowling ball and pins, rain hitting water and making splashes, a basketball being shot into a hoop, footprints in the ground, a chain link, etc. You will be responsible for designing and creating an entire scene that will make your simulation look convincing. This includes modeling any additional props, shading, and lighting the scene. Please keep it simple. The idea of this project is to concentrate on your dynamic simulation. We will be grading you on how well the scene matches real life, and not how realistic the models in your scene are. Once you have decided on what effect you are aiming to recreate, the next step is to find some reference footage of that effect, or better yet to shoot some yourself. The best reference you will have in creating a convincing effect comes from real life. You will be required to bring in the reference material you used to base you effect off of, and we will use this reference to judge the believability of the effect.

What we're looking for

The important thing to remember when working on your dynamic simulation is that we will be much more concerned with quality than complexity. Here are some tips to remember when designing your shot:

Your simulation should try to match real life as close as possible. Remember, reference, reference.
Use dynamic fields on your bodies to create realistic looking movement.
When using soft bodies, remember to adjust the per particle goal weights to get the right amount of stiffness across the body.
Most importantly of all, be creative!

Technical Requirements

You must use some sort of reference material.
You must include in your scene at least one soft body or one hard body.
If you are using Soft Bodies, you must show that you have an understanding of goal weights and must include springs.
If you are using Rigid Bodies, you must use object collisions, and at least one type of constraint.
Your bodies must act under the influence of at least two dynamic fields.

Turn in

A well organized Maya file into the turn-in directory, named Body_(Your Name).mb.
An AVI movie file of their animation rendered in 640x480 resolution into the turn-in directory named Body_(Your Name).avi.
The reference material must be brought to the critique to show during your demo.

Be sure to start early, and bring your questions to the help session and your T.A.'s office hours.