"Fundamentals of Soft and Rigid Bodies in XSI" provides enjoyable, hands-on
projects developed to maximize your understanding of soft and rigid body
dynamics and increase your productivity with time-saving tips. Popular
highlights from "Fundamentals of Soft and Rigid Bodies in XSI" include, setting
up rigid body simulations with active and passive rigid bodies, forces, and
environments, effectively using both ODE and physX rigid body engines,
converting simulations to animations, creating soft body simulations from
objects and clusters, animating soft bodies, influencing soft body dynamics with
animation, transferring soft body deformation/motion using GATOR, creating
simulation-based rigs for characters and vehicles, and several additional topics
designed to boost your creativity and understanding of soft and rigid body
dynamics.
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Introduction
This lesson will introduce you to the topics that will be covered over
the span of this training kit. |
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Rigid
Body Basics
In this lesson we will learn how to set up rigid body simulations by
making rigid bodies out of simple objects and creating forces to affect
them. |
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Collision Geometry
This lesson will explore different types of collision geometries and
their purpose in getting proper rigid body interactions. |
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Dynamics Initial State
This lesson will focus on changing the initial position of a rigid body
object and even setting the initial velocity to give it some launching
power. |
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Active
/ Passive Switch
This lesson explains how to switch active / passive behavior to animate
an object and then have the simulation system control it. |
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Center
of Mass
In this lesson we will learn about the Center of Mass and how to use it
to create a wobbling bop bag. |
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Center
of Mass and Balancing
This lesson will explain more about the Center of Mass and the role it
plays in creating balanced objects. |
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Domino
Effect
In this lesson we will learn how to set up some dominos and tip them
over using the techniques covered in the previous lessons. |
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Environments
Environments are similar to the simulation managers, and this lesson
will show how it categorizes and defines elements of the simulation. |
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Dynamics Operators (part 1)
In this lesson we will learn how to set up a plinko machine simulation
using the ODE rigid body engine. |
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Dynamics Operators (part 2)
This lesson will focus on fixing issues that might occur in our
simulations by altering parameters in the Dynamics Operators as well as
utilizing some workaround techniques. |
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Dynamic Operators (part 3)
In this lesson we will learn how to set up another plinko machine from
the first one and use the Novodex (known as physX in version 5.0)
rigid body engine to simulate it instead. |
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Collision Layers
This lesson will cover Collisions Layers, which can help us make our
simulations more efficient by helping us isolate rigid body collisions. |
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Force
Controllers
Force Controllers can help us define the strength of a force on a rigid
body and this lesson will show us how to use them to get some
interesting effects. |
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From
Simulation to Animation
In this lesson we will learn two techniques of converting simulation
data into animation to avoid re-simulation and allow easy modification
of the motion data. |
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Surface Importance
This lesson will talk about the importance of using thick shapes as
collision objects and will also cover the Convex Hull collision type. |
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Hinge
Constraints
Hinge Constraints are useful in restricting a rigid body so that it can
revolve around another. In this lesson, we値l use them make some old
school saloon doors. |
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Ball
and Socket Constraints
In this lesson we will learn about Ball and Socket constraints which
allow free rotation of rigid bodies and we値l make a bell simulation
with them. |
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Spring
Constraint
In this lesson we will discover the Spring Constraint which
is great for some bungee jumping action. We値l also talk about uses for
Novodex (known as physX in version 5.0) Attachments. |
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Slider
Constraints
Slider Constraints are useful for making sliding pull (or push)
interactions between rigid bodies and we can use them to launch objects. |
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Fixed
Constraint
This lesson will focus on using the Fixed Constraint to keep two rigid
bodies attached to each other and will look into breaking that
attachment as well. |
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Rag
doll Effect (part 1)
In this lesson we will create a dynamic character rig using
multiple constraints and proxy objects. |
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Rag
doll Effect (part 2)
This lesson will conclude the rag doll setup by fixing the constraints
and moving the character with the rag doll rig. |
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Introduction to Soft Bodies
In this lesson we will learn about different ways of setting up soft
bodies to create shape dynamics and how to use obstacles and forces upon
them. |
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Animated Soft Bodies
Soft Body objects can be animated and the simulation can deform
them based on their motions. We値l use this methodology to set up an
interesting dynamic animation. |
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Soft
Body Properties
In this lesson we will learn about different soft body properties
and how to use them properly to get results. |
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Plasticity
Plasticity is the ability of a soft body to return to its
original shape and we値l learn how to use them in a simple setting. |
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Inertia and Soft Bodies
This lesson will go over animating an object and letting the soft
body simulation use the animation inertia as a basis for the soft body痴
motion. |
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Interacting Soft Bodies
In this lesson we will build over the project in the previous one and
learn how to make two soft bodies interact with each other. |
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Soft
Body Transfer
In this lesson we will learn how to take soft body deformation
from a soft body and use GATOR to transfer it onto a non-soft body
object. |
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Soft
and Rigid Body Combo
With this special move, you can take soft bodies and make them
strike down other objects. |
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Shattering Glass
In this lesson we will learn how to take the rag doll we built earlier
and send it through a glass pane, shattering it to pieces! |
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Dynamic Vehicle Rig (part 1)
This lesson will focus on building up parts for creating a
simulation-based four-wheeled vehicle rig. |
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Dynamic Vehicle Rig (part 2)
Continuing from the previous lesson, we will properly set up our
constraints so we can steer and drive our vehicle. |
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Dynamic Vehicle Rig (part 3)
In this lesson we will collect all the necessary parameters and
combine them into one controller to make our rig easy to drive. |
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Dynamic Vehicle Rig (part 4)
This lesson will focus on switching our rig to a different
simulation engine and fixing problems that might occur. |
