Maya Dynamics and Effects - Introducing Maya 2011 - page 585

You can load the scene file Table_v2.mb from the Pool_Table project on the CD to com-
pare your work.
Additional Rigid Body Attributes
In addition, while using the pool table setup without any animation, try playing with
the rigid body attributes to see how they affect the rigid body in question. Some of these
attributes are defined here:
Initial Velocity Gives the rigid body an initial push to move it in the corresponding axis.
Initial Spin Gives the rigid body object an initial twist to start the rotation of the object in
that axis.
Impulse Position Gives the object a constant push in that axis. The effect is cumulative;
the object will accelerate if the impulse isn't turned off.
Spin Impulse Rotates the object constantly in the desired axis. The spin will accelerate if
the impulse isn't turned off.
Center of Mass (0,0,0) Places the center of the object's mass at its pivot point, typically
at its geometric center. This value offsets the center of mass, so the rigid body object
behaves as if its center of balance is offset, like trick dice or a top-weighted ball.
Creating animation with rigid bodies is straightforward and can go a long way toward
creating natural-looking motion for your scene. Integrating such animation into a final
project can become fairly complicated, though, so it's prudent to become familiar with
the workings of rigid body dynamics before relying on that sort of workflow for an ani-
mated project. You'll find that most professionals use rigid body dynamics as a spring-
board to create realistic motion for their projects. The dynamics are often converted to
keyframes and further tweaked by the animator to fit into a larger scene.
Here are a few suggestions for scenes using rigid body dynamics:
Bowling Lane The bowling ball is keyframed as a passive object until it hits the active
rigid pins at the end of the lane. This scene is simple to create and manipulate.
Dice Active rigid dice are thrown into a passive rigid craps table. This exercise challenges
your dynamics abilities as well as your modeling skills if you create an accurate craps
table.
Game of Marbles This scene challenges your texturing and rendering abilities as well as
your dynamics abilities.
Baking Out a Simulation
Frequently, a dynamic simulation is created to fit into another scene, perhaps to interact
with other objects and such. In instances such as this, you want to exchange the dynamic