CV-Spring Tool: Dynamics and Download

Photo of Rod Ross

Instructor Rod Ross

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  • Duration: 07:58
  • Views: 3797
  • Made with Release: 18
  • Works with Release: 18 and greater

In this tutorial we give a quick demonstration of how to use the spring tool dynamics preset to make a functioning pinball plunger.

This tutorial will demonstrate how to use the dynamics preset along with dynamics to make a functioning pinball plunger. We will also take a quick look at the other functions of the Spring tool.

To Download:
Click on the "Information Tab"
Click on the "Download" button.

To Use:
Just unzip the download, and merge the file into your scene.

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Transcript

In this video, we'll use the Spring Tool and dynamics to create a realistic pinball plunger. Before we get to that, let's start with a simple example of setting up a dynamic spring and adjusting its settings. So, I'll make a cube. I'll flatten it, and then I'll copy it, and now I'll add a simulation tag to it. So I'll right-click, Simulation Tags, Rigid Body. Then I'll go to my Spring Tool, Controls, and I'll drag in these cubes to Object 1 and Object 2. Then I'll go to Spring Type and I'll change this to Dynamic. And as you notice, there's a dynamic spring and a connector, and this is set to slider, and that is going to constrain the spring to a single axis. If you don't want that, you can go in the Controls under Dynamics and Disable Connector. In this case, we do want it, and I think you will in most cases, so we're going to leave this unchecked. So the next thing I'll do is copy this cube and I'll drag it up and make it bigger, scale it. And now if I hit Play, everything works. But as you noticed, the spring moved up, and then when I went back to frame 0, it moved back down. So I need to set the rest length on the spring. So under the Spring Tool, under Parts, I'll go to Dynamics, and I'll click on Spring...but first, I'll move this cube up to the position that I want the spring to be in. Then I'll go back to my Spring, and for Rest Length, I'll click this button, Set Rest Length, and now if I hit Play, it stays in the correct position. There's a couple of things I want to change, I don't want this spring to be quite as stiff, so I'm going to change this to 20, and then I want a little more bounce in the spring. The Damping, the higher the number, the less oscillation in the spring, so I want to change the Damping to 10%. So now I'll click on Play, and that's what I want. Now that I've shown you the basics of Dynamics on the Spring Tool, we're going to use the Spring Tool to add a dynamic spring to a plunger on a pinball machine. So I'll go to my file, and here's the Pinball Machine and the plunger. I'll just hide the pinball machine for now to make this easier to see. I've already set up dynamics for the pinball machine, and the pinball. We're just going to be concerned with the spring on the plunger. Now, I have a cube set up with some animation that just pushes the plunger back and then releases it. So if I screw up the timeline, you can see that the cube pushes the plunger back and then releases up, and that will hit the pinball. So I'll go back to frame 0, then I'll go to Window and go to the Spring Tool, and I'll copy this and paste it in our scene. I'll go to my Controls, and I'll drag in the plunger to Object 1, and then this Tube right here for Object 2. Now, if I scrub the timeline, the spring will go into position. If I zoom up here on my spring, I notice that it's going a little too far on the plunger, so I'll go to my Controls, and I'll go down to the bottom for the adjustment, and I'll slide Adjust Object 2 Distance. And as you'll notice, it's adjusting from the wrong side, so I'll click on Reverse, and then I'll just...and now I have the spring the way I want, so I'll zoom back out. And now I want to click on the plunger, and adjust it up to this cube here. So about there's okay, and then I'll go to the Spring Tool, and under Parts, and then Dynamics, I'll go to my Spring and go to Rest Length, and Set Rest Length. Now I'll click on the plunger and add a simulation tag. So I'll right-click Simulation Tags, Rigid Body, and then also my cube, I'll right-click Simulation Tags and Collider Body. Then I'll go to the Spring Tool, Controls. I'll change the Spring Type to Dynamic, and now you can see the dynamic spring is in place, but the connector is not. So I'll click on the Connector, and then I'll go to Tools, Arrange Objects, and Transfer, and then I'll click on this plunger. And I'll rotate the connector to the right axis. And now if I push Play, it's working, but we're getting a lot of bouncing going on here, so we'll need to adjust the dynamics settings. So I'll stop this, I'll click Ctrl+D, and then I'll go to Dynamics. I'll go to Expert, and I'll change the Steps per Frame to 40, and then I'll click Play. And now it's working correctly. I'm going to change my timeline to 200, it'll give us a little more time, and now I hit Play. Okay, that's doing it what I want now, but I want a little more bounce in the spring, so I'll click on Spring, and like we did before, I'll change the Stiffness to...let's say, 20, and the Damping to 10%, and I'll click Play again. And that's much better. Now all I need to do is go to my simulation tag, go to Bake All. And I'll turn on the Pinball Machine. And I can hide this cube again. And now, if I click Play, everything's working correctly. In this video, we created a dynamic spring by adding the Spring Tool, linking two objects, and setting the rest length.
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