Maya Simulation Tips and Tricks - Rigid Bodies, Dynamics and Cloth Justin Muir, Midway Games

1. Maya Simulation Tips and Tricks- Rigid Bodies, Dynamics and ClothJustin Muir, Midway Games

2. Basic Production Workflow • Near Enough is ‘probably’ Good Enough • Tweaking your simulation later with some hand editing is acceptable - what matters is the final result • Perfect simulations are attainable – they just take a good deal of time • Use animation layers to edit your animation

3. Basic Production Workflow • Mesh Topology and Geometry • Topology affects a simulation as much as any value • Carefully build your objects as you would expect them to behave and deform • Ensure your rigging is going to give you the deformation you need

4. Basic Production Workflow • Setting Simulation Parameters • Some values do more than others (friction, gravity) • Every variable change will yield a unique simulation - so tweaking a critical value slightly may result in dramatic changes • Extreme values stress the system - be conservative

5. Basic Production Workflow • Batching Simulation Values • Use a simple MEL script to make a ‘test matrix’ to discover correct values for hard to determine variables • Run the script overnight and review the simulations in the morning for further tuning

6. Basic Production Workflow • Batching Simulation Values – 2 Variables

7. Basic Production Workflow • Batching Simulation Values – 3 Variables

8. Basic Production Workflow • Batching Simulation - MEL • Load Base Scene Iterate through combinations of… Gravity Friction PointMass Simulate Scene Bake Scene Data Render Playblast

9. Basic Production Workflow • Bits and Pieces • Pumping up gravity can be a great way to get the scene to a rest state quickly over a few frames - you can ease it in and out • For final tuning, using the cache is one of the most important tricks of the trade

10. Case Study 1 : Mortal Kombat • Production Brief • Simulate a linked series of breaking chains and pillars for the wicked Quan Chi • MK030_QC

11. Case Study 1 : Mortal Kombat • Scene challenges and solutions • Pillars required careful modeling for realistic crumbling • Pillars used rigid body solving and took 20 minutes per simulation iteration • Pillars determine chain simulation positions • Solution to batch them with MEL script • Chains pre-break use the Hair solver • Chains post-break use rigid body solver

12. Case Study 1 : Mortal Kombat • Production Assets • Pillar Simulation Directory • Merged Maya Scene • MK030_Final

13. Case Study 2 : Wheelman • Production Brief • Simulate a flamenco dancer’s dress in nCloth

14. Case Study 2 : Wheelman • Production Assets • Source Motion Capture • Simulation Iterations • Final Maya Simulation

15. Case Study 3 : Mortal Kombat • Production Brief • Create a set of cloth simulation rigs for MKDC characters that are quick to simulate and tweak.

16. Case Study 3 : Mortal Kombat • Production Assets • Pre-Simulation Movie • Post-Simulation Movie • Kitana Rig • Batman Rig Example

17. Summary • Break down simulation tasks • Make your scenes as simple as possible • Use different tools for different tasks • Lots of overlap between tools • Experiment and have fun! • jmuir@midway.com