Cineversity

I just finished this interesting, informative, bridge build. Getting the cable supports correct in R16 feels impossible. To begin there is no tension control in R16. I tried some of the presets which are close but they do not move smoothly like the cubic like spline behavior you get in your graphs. I bet that since this is an old tutorial you have a better way of solving this. I will investigate maybe the falloff in the effectors to get a more accurate intersection with the cable. I wonder if there is a way to use the spline itself to generate the supports or the stopping point of the cloner. Hair maybe?

Hi jim13,

You are correct, that option is gone.
=========

The set up is based on a circle. So, we have a clean definition of how the scale has to be.

In the Spline interface you can RMC (right-mouse-click) to get to the Spline Presets>Custom…

In this field [formula] you may type in sqrt(1-(x*x)) and use a lot of control points. (In a nutshell, this is a simplfied version of the Sine and Cosine relationship, translated by me for the Spline interface, when one value rises, the other declines, hence the circle result for the Y value, as we get only a linear x for the calculation points. (0-1)/points for the x values—I hope that makes sense in this telegram style.

This gives you a quarter-circle. Yes, it doesn’t look that way as the interface is not square, the Y is squeezed.

This provides you with an option to set all scale steps for half of the bridge, as suggested in the tutorial (hals>Symmetry)

Of course we need only a part of it, as the circle spline was larger then the bridge-element. For that, we use the MoGraph-Selection. Combined with the Plain Effector, we can scale down (-1) the extra clones, or set them invisible, either way…

I have attached the file, have a look, especially the clone distance (to achieve that quarter circle size.

All the best

You asked for an alternative:
(Tutorials are there to introduce techniques, sometimes that is the main point, even if there are shorter ways. So, this is thought of as a target alternative, not to replace the information…)

Please have a look to this set-up. It follows the idea to provide first a “blue-print” and then retrieve the data for anything following from it. Even different ways to build the bridge, see image on the right, just a change of a single parameter. Speaking of parameters, everything is adjustable in this file. Set the tracer to a different interpolation/intermediate points if you like.

Being an architect over many years in my life, bridges were a year long study filed in one of my educations. So, I liked the challenge to find something that works from the start and provides what is needed to all following parts.

I have set the Deformer-Bulge parameter as HUD, so you can adjust it easily.

I hope the file is set up clearly enough to provide a good base to explore it.

Enjoy.

Completely parametrically (vertical-support as well as amount, and the steal-rope curve)
I hope it supports your ideas.

Thanks for your quick responses. I will chew through these and see what I can learn.

You’re welcome, jim137!

I hope the examples have some value for you. :o)

Enjoy.