So everything was going as expected. All was well in the land of flowers and Maya… well almost. I’ve run into a snag when it comes to bending the flower. My non-linear bend modifier controlling the stem don’t seem to be moving the rest of the modifiers associated with the petals and filaments. Only the geometry of the petals and filaments is moved. I have tried all sorts of different parenting and grouping methods. Nothing seems to make the modifiers move. I think that when moving objects with modifiers Maya doesn’t register the geometry moving in the same was as if you translated it. Since the translate is not updated the parenting structures seem to be of no use. The modifiers just say in place. Quite frustrating if you ask me.
I’m looking into parenting the modifiers to a vertex or face. I quickly came across this plugin: DJ Rivet (http://www NULL.djx NULL.com NULL.au/blog/2006/11/11/djrivetmel/). DJ Rivet creates a hair follicle and parents the follicle to a geometry face. It then parents your object to the hair follicle. This plugin looks to be exactly what I need, but I am having 2 problems with it. One; it doesn’t want to install properly for me. When I got to load the plugin it doesn’t show up in Maya 2011. I have placed it in the bin/plugins directory where all the other plugins are, but it doesn’t show up in the plugin list in Maya. Two; it has been said by a few people that this tool doesn’t parent well to geometry that is being deformed :(
I might have to write a custom script for this. I’ve never done that before and it’s actually a little daunting. I figure I can track the position of a face on the stem by averaging the world position of the 4 verts surrounding that face. I can then grab that faces normal orientation and use it to set the rotation of the grouped deformers. As long as the face referenced is one from the top cap of the stem cylinder I’m thinking this should work. Consequently if anyone knows a far easier way, or a script that’s already been developed please let me know. To better visualize the problem here are three pictures showing the static flower, the bend flower and the deformers themselves.
(http://www NULL.terrymatthes NULL.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/flower_static NULL.jpg)
(http://www NULL.terrymatthes NULL.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/flower_deformer NULL.jpg)
(http://www NULL.terrymatthes NULL.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/flower_bend NULL.jpg)
I think now is a good time to take a break from the rigging side of things and concentrate on the materials. I always like to switch gears when I become frustrated with a project. This way I can keep making progress without deterring myself from continuing on. For now I think I will just model a branch and manually place the flowers along it. When that is done I will get back to setting up the modifiers properly.
As always any comments, critiques or recipes for the best summer cocktails are appreciated :D