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Rigging a spring?

Home Forums Graphics / Blender Rigging a spring?

Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
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  • #44829
    ballard
    Participant

    Has anyone had success rigging something like a spring in a car suspension? I’ve tried using a hook modifier and a bone with the stretch -to modifier, but couldn’t get it to work.

    Many thanks if someone could please share how it can be done.

    #44830
    xeon
    Customer

    You can use this method:

    Then use shape keys to drive the animation in verge 3d

    Xeon
    Route 66 Digital
    Interactive Solutions - https://www.r66d.com
    Tutorials - https://www.xeons3dlab.com

    #44832
    ballard
    Participant

    Thanks, I’ll give it a go! I had completely about Shape Keys.

    #44840
    ballard
    Participant

    Any chance you could upload a demo? I followed the tutorial and made sure everything was in the right collection when it was calling the animation. But my spring doesn’t animate in Verge, be it works fine in Blender.

    #44846
    jem
    Customer

    Since we are using Verge3D, there is another way to do this. Rigging and shape keys take a lot of runtime computation. Why not use puzzles? Use the “Animate parameter from” puzzle to drive the z-scale of the spring.
    puzzle setup

    Attachments:
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    Jeremy Wernick

    #44854
    ballard
    Participant

    Thanks! Any tips on how to stop the spring volume from also scaling in thez axis?

    #44864
    jem
    Customer

    @ballard, I can’t think of a solution to the cross-section issue. I think that all of the techniques listed in the thread above will cause the cross-section of the spring to ovalize (since they are all a way of z-scaling). There are two techniques that I can think of that may partially hide this issue.
    1. Use small displacements. I used +/-25%. Using smaller displacements requires less scaling and causes less distortion.
    2. Hide the cut ends of the wire. The cut ends are where the issue is most obvious. If this was a coil for a car, this wouldn’t be too difficult. The spring would be held captive by an upper and a lower spring seat. The spring seat would partially obscure the cut ends

    Jeremy Wernick

    #44867
    xeon
    Customer

    The shape key method described in the video will not cause the spring to change diameter. It’s a function of Blender when using meshes from curves so the diameter will remain constant unless manually changed.

    Xeon
    Route 66 Digital
    Interactive Solutions - https://www.r66d.com
    Tutorials - https://www.xeons3dlab.com

    #44870
    xeon
    Customer

    The trick of the shape key method using splines/curves…is once you have your two shape keys created with your curves…is to then convert the curves to meshes. You will have two messhes…squashed and stretched. You then select both and join them when inserting them into their own shape keys. You can then animate the parameters of the shape keys..like a regular animation and use the playanimation or you can set it up to use morph targets..your choice.

    Attached are two blend files…the original showing the curves and target and then 1 that has the final shape key used to create the Spring application. Also attached is the spring application.

    due to size upload limits, I will post them separately.

    Xeon
    Route 66 Digital
    Interactive Solutions - https://www.r66d.com
    Tutorials - https://www.xeons3dlab.com

    #44872
    xeon
    Customer

    spring blend file with curves/splines

    Attachments:
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    Xeon
    Route 66 Digital
    Interactive Solutions - https://www.r66d.com
    Tutorials - https://www.xeons3dlab.com

    #44874
    xeon
    Customer

    spring file with splines converted to curves…with shape keys set and animated.

    Good luck

    Attachments:
    You must be logged in to view attached files.

    Xeon
    Route 66 Digital
    Interactive Solutions - https://www.r66d.com
    Tutorials - https://www.xeons3dlab.com

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