Would this kind of multi-point tracking be commercially useful?

paulshaunblake

So, let's say someone came up with a way of doing something like this:

With all the motion automatically calculated based off the translation and rotation of the ball at the top. Is that something there would be a market for?

 

Paradigm

I could kind of see a use for it to simulate bullet / jiggle physics on clothes / hair / breast / butt by doing some sort of pairing to the respective influencer

paulshaunblake

So either I'm not imaginative enough to see how this could be applied in those ways, or I haven't illustrated the concept clearly enough. This isn't any kind of springback or jiggle effect. The thing I'm showing off is that, when your move or rotate the upper sphere, the lower spheres and connecting rods all move appropriately as though they were physically connected. This would normally be unworkable in Daz, because no matter how you set up the parent/child relationships between the components, you end up with something needing to influence both its child and its parent.

Basically, I'm pointing out the fact the cylinders connecting the top and bottom would have to function outside the normal parent/child hierarchy.

AlmightyQUEST

It looks like it would be useful, though the most common examples of what people ask for with this are things like a dog on a leash, reins on a horse, things like that which usually have some "slack" on them to account for. The concept seems really cool and useful, and definitely sounds like something people have asked about which we can't currently do (as far as I'm aware).

paulshaunblake

Funny enough, the idea of a double-parented flexible tube is exactly the thing that sent me down this rabbit hole in the first place. To a varying extent, I've already got that worked out: It sort of creates the same kinds of curves you'd get with a slinky, in terms of how its endpoints are positioned and aimed. I've got a slightly more sophisticated version that creates S-curves in certain circumstances.

Of course, since it can't really enforce its length, it's infinitely stretchy, which also limits the kinds of textures that could be applied to it. But I can see ways that my pseudo-IK techniques could possibly approximate a flexible tube of fixed length...

That said, slack is probably going to be best handled by dforce, what with gravity being a factor.

Paradigm

paulshaunblake said:

So either I'm not imaginative enough to see how this could be applied in those ways, or I haven't illustrated the concept clearly enough. This isn't any kind of springback or jiggle effect. The thing I'm showing off is that, when your move or rotate the upper sphere, the lower spheres and connecting rods all move appropriately as though they were physically connected. This would normally be unworkable in Daz, because no matter how you set up the parent/child relationships between the components, you end up with something needing to influence both its child and its parent.

Basically, I'm pointing out the fact the cylinders connecting the top and bottom would have to function outside the normal parent/child hierarchy.

Imagine your little contraption parerented to the hip bone of a character walking and the little apendages attached to anything on the torso above. When the hip rotates or translates it would rotate and translate those pieces, which would simulate reactionary forces. Just trying to give you some ideas. I'm not sure there's any application for what looks like a clumsy recpricapting motion machine in Daz.

Good luck!

ebergerly

If you're talking about giving the user the ability to write equations to define the motion of objects and bones, etc., based on other objects and bones, I imagine in the professional animation circles it would be HUGELY important. For example, if you're animating a car and want the wheels to spin based on its forward motion (rather than having to hand animate each wheel turning) then that would be wonderful. Or setting up a character's bones to rotate based on the motion of other bones, as they do in real life. But I'm not an animator, and I'm not sure there are enough folks here who would really be interested in that kind of detail. 

Chohole

Paradigm said:

paulshaunblake said:

So either I'm not imaginative enough to see how this could be applied in those ways, or I haven't illustrated the concept clearly enough. This isn't any kind of springback or jiggle effect. The thing I'm showing off is that, when your move or rotate the upper sphere, the lower spheres and connecting rods all move appropriately as though they were physically connected. This would normally be unworkable in Daz, because no matter how you set up the parent/child relationships between the components, you end up with something needing to influence both its child and its parent.

Basically, I'm pointing out the fact the cylinders connecting the top and bottom would have to function outside the normal parent/child hierarchy.

Imagine your little contraption parerented to the hip bone of a character walking and the little apendages attached to anything on the torso above. When the hip rotates or translates it would rotate and translate those pieces, which would simulate reactionary forces. Just trying to give you some ideas. I'm not sure there's any application for what looks like a clumsy recpricapting motion machine in Daz.

Good luck!

known as an ERC Link in Daz Studio.

Lwanmtr

Looks like something that could be handled with IK, goals at the ends of the arms on the controller object.

Paradigm

Chohole said:

Paradigm said:

paulshaunblake said:

So either I'm not imaginative enough to see how this could be applied in those ways, or I haven't illustrated the concept clearly enough. This isn't any kind of springback or jiggle effect. The thing I'm showing off is that, when your move or rotate the upper sphere, the lower spheres and connecting rods all move appropriately as though they were physically connected. This would normally be unworkable in Daz, because no matter how you set up the parent/child relationships between the components, you end up with something needing to influence both its child and its parent.

Basically, I'm pointing out the fact the cylinders connecting the top and bottom would have to function outside the normal parent/child hierarchy.

Imagine your little contraption parerented to the hip bone of a character walking and the little apendages attached to anything on the torso above. When the hip rotates or translates it would rotate and translate those pieces, which would simulate reactionary forces. Just trying to give you some ideas. I'm not sure there's any application for what looks like a clumsy recpricapting motion machine in Daz.

Good luck!

known as an ERC Link in Daz Studio.

Huh, TIL!