I'm guessing that this means creating several narrow cylinders, all of which
are
a.. anchored at one end (to something on land) using the Origin Handle
b.. mobile at the other end (the one that's attached to a ship), and
c.. able to both grow and shrink lengthwise - dynamically - in
"real-time."
Does anyone know if Bryce is able to do this, or would I need to look at
something like 3ds max 6?
Create a parent / child relationship through the rope system; I'd have
them overlapping. You might even consider using cones to allow for
bending w/out supplemental points appearing...they'll probably not be
the immediate focus of attention.
I belive you should be able to propogate size / physical
characteristics to children as well as movement.
hrm...there's "point to" and "child parent"
you're going to be pressed to do this, but it's definately possible.
It'll take a few runs at which end is the "parent" (probably the side
attached to the ground) and which parts to link to / point to.
I'd be very interested in the final result if you can post it.
Good luck,
G
No bowing of the lines due to gravity but if you put a cylinder of suitable
diameter into Bryce and tell it to "track" an object then it will always point
at that object (a tiny sphere say, embedded in a suitable position on your
ship). Grouping the cylinder with a negative cube or two will allow you to
regulate its length in the rendered scene, if the cubes are carefully placed.
One of the higher end packages like 3D Studio Max or LightWave can do it
properly, but they will take you a long time to learn to use properly - about a
year unless you already know one of them, then it can be done in a month or
two. For teams working on projects, Maya or SoftImage XSI are best, for
individuals LightWave, 3D Studio, Cinema 4D, whatever, all the high end ones
are superb.
--
Web site: http://www.the-furnace.demon.co.uk