Modelled Leaf responding to Wind

Modelled Leaf responding to Wind

on Feb 16, 2012 at 11:20:18 pm

Hi All,

I'm having difficulties figuring out how to get my modelled leaf to react to a single gust of wind (as if a flap from a birds wing stirred it up).

I've modelled the leaf and adjusted the Cloth's EPS & stiffness/iteration so that its not jittering around, but need more help.

1. How do i add a spine/stem to the leaf so that the stem running through the middle is extremely stiff?

2. How would i accomplish a single gust/flap of wind to push the leaf up?
- Through the Cloth Forces? or through effectors?

Thanks for any input/help!

C4D R13 Leaf: 3723_elementleaf.zip

Re: Modelled Leaf responding to Wind

by Brian Jones

on Feb 17, 2012 at 5:23:04 am

1. build it differently so it has a stem - you can use a weight map to make the stem stiffer than the rest of the leaf

2. there is more than one way but keyframing the cloth forces is pretty direct

here's a quick test. 3725_elementleaf2.c4d.zip

Re: Modelled Leaf responding to Wind

on Feb 17, 2012 at 2:10:32 pm

Thanks Brian. I'll definitely take a look at this today!

Re: Modelled Leaf responding to Wind

on Feb 17, 2012 at 4:24:51 pm

AMAZING! Thanks so much

BTW, what is the SoloStore plugin? (There is a "?" referencing it on every object)

Now to learn from you efforts, where do i find out more about the "base tag"? I understand the principle of weighting and recognize the reds/oranges specify which is stiffer but have no experience with the process. Any pointers in this area are greatly appreciated.

Thanks again.

Re: Modelled Leaf responding to Wind

by Brian Jones

on Feb 17, 2012 at 6:31:24 pm

that is unusual but I'm guessing it's a left over tag (that I'm not seeing) from SoloButton which is a plugin to easily solo any object (or hierarchy).

setting weights is easy at first (just use the Set Vertex Weights command) once you have a weight tag you want to use but then want to modify that you just double click on the weight tag and it opens a dialog where you can add/subtract modify etc.

Re: Modelled Leaf responding to Wind

on Feb 17, 2012 at 8:35:38 pm

Great. thanks.

Any idea why my system chugs with 3-6 leaves responding to a brief burst of wind from an Attractor+Rotation effector?

The render times are quick, just really sluggish in the viewport.

Appreciate the help!

Re: Modelled Leaf responding to Wind

by Brian Jones

on Feb 17, 2012 at 11:33:48 pm

the cloth calculations are done by a single processor and collisions make it worse so it's just going to be slow as the number of polys increases, try to keep the polys low, try to get the Iterations as low as you can and still get the stiffness you want