Week 10 - Part 2 The Ironing Board and Physics!

Now was the time to move onto the second Ident and creating Si an ironing board and iron that were as space-age as every other piece of furniture in his home: here's what happened

To begin the 'board, I would need to create a 'Box' shape-object from which I could then convert to an 'Editable_Poly' (meant I could select individual vertices for manipulation) and then apply the 'Lattice' modifier - I have used this extensively due to the fantastically complex and uniform models that are formed from the application of this modifier

Selecting 'Top' view, I was able to see the newly-latticed Box in a 'wireframe' mode. The advanced technique of studying an object in this view affords the user to be able to highlight the exact vertices or edges he needs to adjust for effect

I began by selecting the top-centre and bottom section of the box as shown here and pulled them outwards along the 'y' axis


This area was to be the main ironing square that Si would be using for his shirt
Another advantage of using this view means that the user can maintain immediate accuracy in the modification of any objects and keep all lines symmetrical and in position


^When in 'front' view for another manipulation along the 'z' axis this time, the model return to full 'Smooth_Highlights' mode (I had yet to see how it looked from the 'Perspective' view!)^


Happy with the 'boards appearance, I decided to crate the flat surfaces that would need to be used for when actually ironing took place - an area for the shirt to lay on and an area for the iron to rest also.
Therefore, by selecting the edge that ran along the inside strut one side of the 'board, I was able to pull the edge along 'y' towards its opposing edge on the other side of the object, keeping it flat as possible

This is a rendered example of how the 'board was looking after carrying out the process described above for the first two sections. Only slight adjustments were needed to make sure the extruded edge was to be flush with the opposing edge^

^Taking advantage of all four viewports when using the 'Move-Transform_Type-in' tool means that I could see how my adjustments were affecting all points of the object. This section required some patience as, due to the edges of the shape having natural irregularities, it meant I had to take the transform figures into two decimal places to get the position needed^



The process was once again repeated onto the other extruded part at the end of the 'board. I wanted to make sure that this object would accept not only a 'UVW Map' as a texture later on, but could also not affect any problems when using the 'Reactor' tool (I found this would be case - shown further down this post!)


The section on the right, due to the lifting-based modification I carried out at the beginning, didn't accept the edge-pulling process as easily as the perfectly level areas further along the 'board

I admit that I just wanted to move onto the next part of the procedure, but the angled section in the image shown on the left unfortunately was to happen anyway...


The iron - by creating a pyramid and applying the 'lattice' tool, I was sure that I could create a decent space-age instrument for Si to sue in this second Ident
As with the 'board, looking at the object in the 'top' view affords me a chance to adjust vertices which I just couldn't get a hold of or risk altering wrongly in the 'perspective' view


I had applied, through the 'lattice' menu, the 'Smooth_Edges' modifier to give the iron the form seen here

From the 'top' view, the stretched out the dozen or so vertices at the apex of the pyramid were to create a makeshift handle for Si to hold onto - all that was needed was to rotate the iron to lie flat on the 'boards surface

^To create the shirt that Si will be ironing during this animation, I decided that the best way to create a solid object which not only would be able to react dependably in the Reactor process, but also could be manipulated into any shape needed, would be to form a plane, convert to a 'poly_model' and then modify from there...^

^Once I had adjusted each of the vertices to achieve the correct form of a shirt, I returned to the 'Editable_Poly' level and, selecting 'element' I highlighted the facing surface of the shirt and extruded upwards (I knew that if I were to get this to act as a 'Cloth_Object', there would need to be some depth and tangibility to it^


Applying a 'cloth' modifier, the shirt only needed to be positioned into the surface of the ironing board for me to get a idea of how it would appear during the rendering stage.
I retained the default settings set by Max for the 'cloth' mod. to see how the shirt would act initially.


As the image shows, by this stage I had set a duo of 'Rigid_Body_Collections' onto the iron and the 'board itself
, the shirt now with the 'rector_Cloth' modifier
But, with the first tests, I found that Max would continuously say that the 'board and the shirt were 'interrupting' each others 'paths'
In other words, the surface that I had created for the ironing board may not be suitable!

^To test my theory, I created a basic cube on-screen to see if it was the 'boards surface that was creating the problems (during the reactor test, the shirt would fall through the ironing board into infinity!). The shirt was placed above the cube and, not altering any settings apart form increasing dialled-mass to 10kg equiv, I ran the reactor test. The results above show that the shirt rested atop the cube without falling through...an artificial surface for the shirt to lie on would be needed^


The image shows the 'plane' that I placed onto the 'boards surface, colour-coded to blend in and, almost without any thought of my own, it actually managed to cover up some slight discrepancies in the joins when the edges were pulled together earlier
I also made sure that the 'plane' had enough width and height segments for the shirt_cloth to blend over when rendered


I made a few final changes to the cloth settings: mass set at 5.0 kg, friction at 1, relative density at 2 and air resistance set at 0.1
This time round, the Reactors 'Real_Time_Preview' generated a scenario where the shirt was to actually fold and crease when of the 'boards surface in a realistic manner - it also actually held there and didn't fall off, even with no other 'rigid_body' holding it
down!

^The final step was to incorporate the iron into the scene, just to check that it would be moved along and apply pressure in a manner that would suit the motion Si would be creating himself
I went to the 'Rigid_Body_Properties' menu and applied a mass greater than that of the shirt for the iron, with no friction or elasticity either (all it would do would be to crease and fold the shirt as before)^

^The 'analysis' complete, this is the final reactor scene with which I was happy to say that "it worked" Notice how, by hanging a small amount of the shirt over the edge, it appears to act in the manner we normally associate with clothing in real life...^


Just as a small side note, I may in fact be altering the eventual displaying location of the Sci-Fi logo in this scene - I may in fact just have it displayed on the shirt and, as the camera moves in closer, Si will move the iron away to place it down and the camera will move over and arc downwards to show the logo as the final shot...this is only what I could propose if the logo-on-the-bottom-of-the-iron doesn't work out!