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How do I animate a rock rolling down a mountainside?

scottandersonphd_362c87c6b7scottandersonphd_362c87c6b7 Posts: 0
edited December 1969 in Carrara Discussion

I've got Carrara 7 Pro. I'm trying to animate a rock rolling down a mountain. Here's what I'm doing:

1. Loading the Mountain Preset
2. Adding a Big Rock
3. Changing the Rock's motion to "Physics"
4. Making sure the Effects Physical Properties allow it to "collide with other objects"
5. Setting the Physical Properties material to Ice
6. Placing the rock above the mountain
7. Setting initial velocity to 200 ft/second on Y and Z Axes (as test parameters)
8. Clicking the Bone-looking Simulate Physics Button
9. I only get a little tiny bit of movement, rather than the rock bouncing down the mountain like I would hope.

What am I doing wrong here? It seems like it should be relatively straight forward.

Comments

  • McGuiverMcGuiver Posts: 219
    edited December 1969

    First,

    If you are using a large scene, it may only move a little since the scale is much larger.

    second,
    you will need a negative value in the "Z" initial velocity, otherwise the rock will rise, then fall with gravity.
    I just tried with -30 ft/sec. and it seemed about right in a medium scale scene.

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited December 1969

    Is the default scene gravity turned on as well?

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,989
    edited June 2013

    if you decide to do it by hand there is a plug in http://www.sparrowhawke3d.com/Sparrowhawke3DLaboratory.html

    follow terrain modifier

    not sure what versions of carrara it works in

    also use Bezier's in your tweeners

    though maybe you could use oscillate parameter as well in two of the axii?

    see http://wiki.daz3d.com/doku.php/artzone/pub/software/carrara/06_six/17_animating

    Post edited by Headwax on
  • JoeMamma2000JoeMamma2000 Posts: 2,615
    edited June 2013

    What McGuiver said....

    Keep in mind a few basics:

    1. Stuff falls (accelerates) at 32 feet per second every second. Which means in the first second of your animation it will only travel like 16 feet or so. So if the terrain in your field of view is many hundreds of feet, you ain't gonna see much movement. Falling 16 feet in the first second off a 400 foot cliff isn't going to look like much.

    2. Also, keep in mind the size of your rocks. If your rock is hundreds of feet in diameter it might look way too slow when it falls. Make the rock a realistic size relative to the terrain, and spaced accordingly, and it will fall realistically.

    Real rocks falling down real mountains take a long time to get down to the bottom because of the great distances involved. So you'll either need to zoom way in to a very close, small scale if you want the rock to fall "quickly", or force it by manipulating the scene gravity and/or initial velocity. However, keep in mind this might make the animation appear "off", since stuff doesn't travel like that in real life.

    Post edited by JoeMamma2000 on
  • JoeMamma2000JoeMamma2000 Posts: 2,615
    edited December 1969

    Here's a "cheap 'n cheesy" animation of a rock falling on a terrain. It's an 8 foot diameter boulder, which starts it's fall at about 70 feet above the surface of the stock Carrara terrain. I also gave it some initial velocity and rotation as if it was in mid-fall.

    Unfortunately I probably did something bone-headed so the collision distance isn't right. But for the life of me I can't figure out what I did. Anyway, I think the key is to keep in mind the sizes and distances you're dealing with and compose your camera view accordingly.

    http://youtu.be/RrhId1lxWAI

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