Maya® Visual Effects: The Innovator's Guide

Chapter 6. Soft Body Springs

Creating a soft body object involves converting the vertices of an object (NURBS or polygonal), the points of a lattice, or the control vertices of a curve into a particle system. The particle system-can then be affected by fields, goals, and expressions just like any other particle system. When this happens, the particle system deforms the geometry, curve, or lattice, creating the effect of secondary or overlapping motion. Essentially, it's a ton of fun. Additionally, you can add springs to the particles of a soft body, which can accentuate the motion of the particles even further. You can add rippling effects across the surface of the geometry or make it stiffer and more rubbery. Springs can also be used to connect ...