How To Animate A Flag In Maya

Waving flag in Maya with nCloth build-in organization is a uncomplicated technique you can accomplish in a matter of seconds. You can use this technique for other concepts such every bit curtains or really any textile textile.

nCloth in Maya is actually powerful. On top of that inside Maya, you have plenty of preset options to choose from of how your cloth dynamics will react.

Basically the idea is like that:

create two carve up geometry (flagpole and flag-fabric)
for the flagpole, create a passive collider
for the flag-fabric, create a nCloth node
connect the flagpole and flag-fabric with transforme constrain node
playing with the Nucleus node settings to get the right conditions
set upwards an initial phase for your dynamics

Yous tin picket a Youtube video "waving flag dynamics in Maya" which I accept uploaded with the whole process. Although keep in heed there are no notes or clarifications on that video of why we do what nosotros do. For that matter go along reading this article.

Modeling part of flag in Maya:

Create the flagpole geometry:

Allow'south really quickly create our elementary flagpole geometry. We won't make information technology complicated. Merely create a elementary cylinder and a sphere geometry on superlative of that. I used the following settings for both of them.

Note: Since nosotros are going to utilise dynamics in Maya, it would be wise in our outset steps not to use heave geometry. Dynamics in Maya can be very slow concerned playback speed if your continued geometry is besides heavy. Of course, information technology depends on your motorcar as well.

Create the flag-cloth geometry:

Since I am Greek, in our demonstration I suppose it's fair enough to use the Greek flag. The author of the flag image is deMysticWay at pixabay

Note: I assume you won't have whatever problem finding your flag as a free resource. If you take trouble finding your flag, at that place is a peachy paid resource platform that if your upkeep allows it you should definitely check out. Countryflags is a great way to discover and download actually whatever flag you need. Despite the pure high-resolution download part, It also provides boosted information such as colors used past the flag, aspect ratio, and history information as well.

That been said, let'south create the flag-fabric geometry.

Create a standard polygon primitive – plane with the following settings. Width 9, Acme six, Sub Width 36, Sub Top 24. Likewise reposition your flag to attach the flagpole, similar the prototype below:

The way we put those numbers was non random. It really has a uncomplicated theory behind it. The theory of respecting the aspect ratio, let me elaborate. The Greek flag has an attribute ratio of 2:3. So, our width and top for our flag-material geometry could be 9 and six accordingly, which is a 2:3 attribute ratio. Too, the sub width and sub tiptop are 36 and 24 appropriately, which is also 2:3 aspect ratio.

Texture and materials for the flag:

Since this commodity is focused on dynamics in Maya, and we are not going to return anything, feel costless to add elementary materials on your own to those objects. I take applied a blinn material for each object.

At present, since in the flag-material material we are going to utilise our Greek flag texture, we want our UVs for the geometry to be correct. And the mode to practice that is by covering the whole surface area with UV, like the gif below:

Afterwards that, just apply your flag texture in the color slot for the flag-textile material, and everything it's going to be fine.

apply texture map into color slot of the material — apply texture map into color slot of the fabric

Dynamics part of waving flag in Maya:

In this section, we are going to apply dynamics in our scene for both geometry (flagpole and flag-fabric) and then we will connect those dynamics to each other with transforme constrain node. In that fashion, they will stick together. As a upshot, our flag-cloth will not fall to the ground in the simulation process. Let's get to it.

Create passive collider for the flagpole:

Select the flagpole and go to FX module, nCloth – create passive collider. After that 2 new nodes have been created (nucmeus1, nRigid1).

Create nCloth Maya node for the flag:

Select the flag-material geometry and this time create a nCloth node, past going to nCloth – create nCloth. Some other node has been created (nCloth1) and also it has been established a connection with the existing nucleus1.

Let's really apace apply silk preset on the nCloth node of our flag. Select the flag-fabric geometry and in the aspect editor on the nClothShape press and select the silk preset – replace from the list. I found out that the silk preset behaves more than naturally for flag materials.

Note: Y'all can create all sorts of Fabric materials past playing with nCloth attributes. If y'all are interested in how you tin can create materials using nCloth, this is an interesting source by official Autodesk Maya on that field of study.

If y'all play the animation-simulation, you volition notice our flag is falling to the ground. That'south why in the post-obit section we will add a transform constrain node to prevent our flag from doing that.

waving flag in Maya, flag falling down — flag falling downwards

Note: When you bargain with dynamics in Maya, it's a good idea to switch the playback speed to play every frame.

Connecting nCloth and passive collider with transform constraint node:

The manner to forbid the flag to autumn downwardly is pretty uncomplicated. Using a transforme constrain node, betwixt vertices and another geometry. In that way we say that those vertices volition exist sticky to that geometry no matter what. As a result, our flag will be waving except those vertices, which will exist pasty to the flagpole. Let'due south get to it.

Select the flag-fabric geometry, and go in component mode and select all the vertices which are closed to the flagpole. After that, select the flagpole and go to FX module, nConstrain – Transform Constraint.

nCloth, transform constraint link — nCloth, Transform Constraint link

If you play the blitheness, you lot will observe this time our flag is non falling down, although is waving but not the right way. We will fix that in the following section.

flag stick to the flagpole

Set up Gravity and Current of air in Maya:

Aggrandize your time range within Maya to something similar 0 to 1000 or fifty-fifty more, and so you accept room to piece of work.

Select the nucleus note and go to the Attribute editor. Leave the Gravity at ix.eight and the Gravity Direction every bit information technology is. Set the Wind Speed to 7 and the Wind Noise at 0.5. Play the blitheness.

waving flag in Maya with correct forces

Notation: We could accept added some other forces to bear on our flag, such as turbulence, drag, etc. only for simplicity'south purposes we didn't.

Our flag seems to wave naturally, I am quite happy. Expect for the commencement role, which seems nevertheless and unnatural waiting to take action. The way to solve this issue is by setting an initial stage.

Set up correctly the Initial stage in Maya :

The initial phase as the name suggests is the initial stage for our dynamics in Maya. In our concept, we want our flag to have an action on it from the beginning frame.

Play the animation – simulation and subsequently a few frames later when the flag is already waving, stop the animation and select the flag-cloth geometry. Go to Fields/Solvers – Initial Stage – Set for Selected. If y'all play over again your blitheness, now the animation starts from that frame yous set previously.

waving flag in Maya final animation

Conclution:

As yous can see, with nCloth build-in system in Maya you tin accomplish pretty cool stuff in a affair of seconds. You can use the above technique to create waving flags of all types, and I think the result was quite realistic. Of course, Information technology would be more realistic if nosotros practical more than suitable materials to our objects and applied lights and lastly, we used a realistic renderer such as 5-ray or Arnold.

Since this article was focused primarily on dynamics with nCloth in Maya, basically I left the realistic office on you 🙂

Y'all can absolutely create a waving flag in Maya with the concept of logo, quotes, images, and of course nation flags and apply it every bit an intro in your video.

Feel free to take a look at a gig of mine on Fiverr, "Realistic waving flag animation". It'due south not a Maya project with the in a higher place technique, but I recall with a lilliputian work y'all tin accomplish the exact aforementioned outcome with nCloth in Maya.

Source: https://inspireme.blog/how-to-create-waving-flag-animation-ncloth-in-autodesk-maya/

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