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SP EFFECTS will pay 1/2 the shipping!

Starting January 1st 2009, SP Effects will pay for half the shipping costs on all orders, international and domestic. The customer needs to do nothing. Simply place your order and the discounted shipping rate will be calculated automatically.

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SP Effects announces Maya Cloth for Characters

Maya Cloth for Characters

Book Information
MSRP: $49.95 U.S.
PUB DATE: August 2008

If your next CG production involves characters, you should think about dressing them! Add realistic clothing to your CG characters using Maya with Maya Cloth for Characters. Discover how the clothes were built for an upcoming computer generated horror movie.
With this book you will learn everything you need to know to create a wardrobe for all of your characters. Each part of the process is thoroughly explained with step-by-step instructions. Follow along with two complete human characters included on the DVD. Learn how to dress your characters and simulate pants, shirts, jackets, and much more. You will also gain an understanding of how to troubleshoot and fine tune clothing to get the exact results you are looking for. Maya Cloth for Characters is an essential guide for designing, building, and animating clothing.

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SP Effects announces Maya nCloth Basics

Maya nCloth Basics

Book Information
MSRP: $24.95 U.S.
PUB DATE: July 2008

Harness the power of Maya’s nCloth with the Basic nCloth DVD. The lessons and accompanying scene files walk you through the fundamentals of nCloth. Start by draping a tarp onto a truck. Then blow it off with cinematic style wind. Next up, have the truck drive through the cloth, tearing a hole in the middle of it.

nCloth is great for fabric, but it can also replicate metal and glass. It’s destruction time! Smash the vehicle’s windows and crush the hood. For the grand finally, send the truck over a cliff. Sit back and watch the vehicle roll over and over, denting, dinging, and crushing with each tumble. Get all of this and more with the power of nCloth and the Basic nCloth DVD.

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Subdivisions, Mental Ray’s approximation editor and displacement maps

Mental Ray Approximation Editor

Elements:

1. Polygon source mesh modeled with all quads, triangles, or a mixture of both
2. Displacement map.

Overview: Convert a rigged, low polygon model of an octopus into a subdivision surface using Mental Ray’s approximation editor. Once established, add a displacement map for further detail. Ultimately this gives you the ability to use the approximation editor to control the tessellation of the polygon object during render time.

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Introduction to the workings of Maya Cloth & Create a sheet and rest it on top of a bed.

**Note** This tutorial is based off of Chapter 2, Maya Cloth for Characters!
Pre-requisite: Solid understanding of the Maya interface.

Cloth Sheet

Elements

1. Cloth sheet
2. Polygon mattress
3. Polygon Box spring

Overview: In this example, we create a polygon sheet utilizing cloth’s create panel and create garment tools, and rest the sheet on a bed.

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Force one surface to fit around several other surfaces.

Shrink Wrap

Elements:

1. NURBS or Polygon target objects
2. Polygon source mesh

Overview: In this example, we take a modeled polygon arm or “skin” and have it conform to underlying muscles. Although the purpose is for better skin simulation, shrink wrapping geometry can be used for a variety of techniques and provides cool animation effects.

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Create a dynamic collision between two objects, leaving a dent on one of the objects.

Soft Body Collisions

Elements:

1. NURBS Sphere
2. Polygon mesh
3. Duplicate polygon mesh
4. Gravity Field

Overview: In our first example we have a ball crashing into a moving cube. Upon impact the ball will bounce off the cube leaving a dented surface on the cube. To create this effect, we use a soft body particle system attached to a subdivided polygon mesh.

The ball is made into an active rigid body with which you can establish interaction with the particles of the soft body. Particles themselves do not act upon rigid bodies, meaning they do not affect rigid body transforms.

It only works the other way around. Rigid bodies can move particles! Because of this, we need another element, a second passive rigid body cube for the ball to bounce against. By adding some gravity and two key frames our simulation is complete.

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