3D animation tutorials

Creating a soft bowling ball with nCloth.

Bowling. In one of the videos on 3DbyBuzz, we created a bowling ball and pins. Pins and ball. The pins were made by creating a curved line.  We did this by using the Create Main Menu selector and then using the CV Curve tool to make the profile of a bowling pin.  We then adjusted the Main Menu Selector at the top left of the Maya Main window to choose Surfaces on the main Menu, and then chose Revolve. We then created a polygon ball. Rigid objects. Then the pins and the ball were all turned into active rigid objects by selecting them and then choosing Dynamics from the Main Menu Selector at the upper left of the main Maya window, and choosing Soft/Rigid Bodies, and then choosing Create Active Rigid Bodies. Sideways gravity. Then we put the bowling ball under the power of a gravity field set to move objects in the z dimension, not the y dimension, as gravity normally behaves.  This is done by going to Fields and then choosing Gravity, and then adjusting the direction attributes accordingly. This is the result when we run the scene:

bowlrigid-300x220-2013-01-27-17-52.jpg

nCloth. Now, lets do this again, but this time, we are using the nDynamics Main Menu selection.  We select our pins and then choose nMesh and then Create Passive Collider.  We then select the ball and choose nMesh and then Create nCloth.  (The ball must be a polygon ball for this.)
bowlsoft-300x233-2013-01-27-17-52.jpg
We see the bowling ball squashing when it hits a pin.