Special uses of soft bodies

This section suggests ways to use soft bodies with other Maya features. For details on the features themselves, see the applicable documentation.

Make a skin a soft body

A skin is geometry that deforms with the movement of a skeleton. You can make the skin a soft body to cause it to jiggle with the movement of the skeleton.

To make a skin a soft body

1. Select the skin.
2. Select nParticles > Create Soft Body > to display the options window.
3. From the Soft Options menu, select Duplicate, Make Copy Soft.
4. Turn on Hide Non-Soft Object and Make Non-Soft a Goal.
5. Set Weight less than 1.

   The lower the Weight, the more the skin jiggles.

6. Click the Create button.
7. To increase jiggle in certain areas, add per particle goal weights to the soft body and decrease the goal weights in those areas.

Make a lattice a soft body

To add an overall jiggle to an object, you can add a lattice to it and make the lattice a soft body. When the lattice is a soft body, it is affected by fields. The lattice deforms the object according to the field affecting it.

By making the lattice a soft body rather than the object itself, Maya calculates dynamics faster. Also, it is easier for you to add springs to a lattice than to complex geometry.

Tip:

If you are going to use the lattice as a collision object, match the size of the lattice closely to the size of the object’s bounding box.

To make a lattice a soft body

1. Select the lattice.
2. Select nParticles > Create Soft Body > to display the options window.
3. From the Soft Options menu, select Make Soft.
4. Click the Create button.
5. Connect the soft body to the field you want to use to deform the object.

Make a wire a soft body

A wire is a curve that deforms an object. If you make a wire a soft body, you can connect it to fields to deform it.

To make a wire a soft body

1. Select the wire.
2. Select nParticles > Create Soft Body > to display the options window.
3. From the Soft Options menu, select Make Soft.
4. Click the Create button.
5. Connect the soft body to the field you want to use to deform the object.

Make an IK spline curve a soft body

An IK spline curve is a curve that controls a skeleton. If you make an IK spline curve a soft body, you can use fields to affect its motion.

To make an IK spline curve a soft body

1. Select the IK spline curve.
2. Select nParticles > Create Soft Body > to display the options window.
3. From the Soft Options menu, select Make Soft.
4. Click the Create button.
5. Connect the soft body to the field you want to use to deform the motion.

Make a motion path a soft body

A motion path is a curve that controls the motion of an object. If you make a motion path a soft body, you can connect it to fields to change the motion.

To make a motion path a soft body

1. Select the motion path.
2. Select nParticles > Create Soft Body > to display the options window.
3. From the Soft Options menu, select Make Soft.
4. Click the Create button.
5. Connect the soft body to the field you want to use to deform the motion.

Make a model from a soft body

If you make an object a soft body, you can use fields or expressions to deform the object, then duplicate the deformed object at a frame to create a new object.

To make a model from a soft body:

1. Select the object.
2. Select nParticles > Create Soft Body > to display the options window.
3. From the Soft Options menu, select Make Soft.
4. Use a field or expression to deform the soft body.
5. Play the animation and stop it when the soft body is deformed as desired.
6. Select the soft body.
7. Select Edit > Duplicate > to display the options window.
8. In the options window, turn off Duplicate Input Graph and turn off Duplicate Input Connections, then click the Duplicate button.

   The copy is a snapshot of the soft body at the current frame.

9. In the Outliner, delete the particle object indented under the copy.

   You can continue to adjust the field or expression to make additional copies.