Cineversity

My job is to make an ice hockey net tear as a puck breaks through it. We picked up a hockey net from Turbosquid. I split everything but the net, which is made of triangulated polygons totalling around 230,000. It seems to be somewhat of a mess with very thin areas that totally disappear if I reduce the polygon count. I would like to just remake the net with spline sweeps which would take some time. My questions are:

1. Is there a more efficient way to trace the net over just using snap to vertex and the pen tool to literally retrace the net?

2 I there a best practice for creating the cloth dynamics in the netting so that the cloth collider breaks through nicely?

I think I figured out how to remake the netting efficiently. I decide to use the polygon pen to “retopologize” the net but as if it is one large shape, not individual “strings”. Then I will add edges that roughly correspond to the net’s ropes. Finally, select all the lines and use edge to spline, sweep the spline with an n-gon and it should at least approximate the netting that I received from Turbosquid.

Now all I need to figure out is how to break the net with pieces flying as the puck goes through.

Hi vytas_rauckis,

Some Brainstorming here:

Have you considered to use a simply Polygon Object first to get the effect. For one square in the mesh above—one polygon quad?
Please check out this tutorial:
https://www.cineversity.com/vidplaylist/cloth_simulation/cloth_simulation_part_08

The question I would have, is the mesh in a close up at all to justify the huge amount of work? it could be a texture and a bump map to get the light close to it.

However, how about cutting the mesh where it should tear apart and animate the whole thing with deformers. If the mesh density (230.000) is justified by close ups, I would assume that the art-directing has a similar influence, of how the net progresses during that tear.

Let me know what kind of requirements the animation has.

All the best

Attached is the new net as per my idea of recreating it using edge to spline. I went from over 100,000 polys to now 34,000 and a nicer mesh also.  Now, I like the idea of using voronoi fracture with glue to simulate breaking of the net. Now we will see how it works

Here is an example, vytas_raukis, based on the idea to start with a simple mesh.

You can see in the file below, that I have build up on that idea, until I got the net.

Scene file:
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/QnsDYSZUspvsbPJvk15qXsHBuV58FlnwpU1KTR7P4Rj

Inside of that file I have introduced (see Layer Browser) the Art-Direct elements, and the Main Actor. The Art-Direct elements are there to get a lot of motion into the net. You certainly will adjust this to your liking.

I have fixed the points inside the Cloth Tag, but normally I would go with the Belt option, as that allows you to move things around with the Belt.

My best wishes for the project

That is excellent.

Nice, thanks for the feedback, vytas_rauckis.

Instead of the Atom Object, the Cloner Object (Edge/scale) can be used as well. It helps to produce a lighter mesh. Since I posted it I tried to find some simplified ideas for the “rope” texture.

Here is an iteration of it. It has a “Normal Texture” for the rope. But more importantly, I replaced the Atome Object with the MoGraph Cloner. Here more as a sketch with three states (blended) of the rope. It blends based on the Modify Clone [Plain] and Blend [Cloner] set up. Th more the net gets pushed out, the more “wrinkled” the rope becomes. I assume if that is rendered with motion blur that it will look more natural.

Scene file:
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/JDo2lZXFc9lpZhPJoFnSMz3NaP3pWIzz5nztn4ZKYgn

Cheers.

P.S.: I had also in mind to share a texture (net) based set up. It is a quick texture, you might get a better one, perhaps just place a little net on a scanner, and tile it.

Please have a look. I have used several collider, some animated, some just to support the others. The cached Cloth was then a tiny little bit art directed with the “Cloth Cache Tool”, to get the motion and the impact a little bit more dramatic. More work is needed as I would call that only a preview/sketch so far. I hope it is enough to showcase the options. Perhaps render frame 56.

Scene file: (cached)
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/zMUv86WluCw4RPcx1yJuJA6AuoStWZD5opB4j4IiW67

My best wishes

I must say, after so much options and your thoughtful work to achieve the effect, I got to say ‘ich liebe dich’! Thank you so much for your work. I definitely will show you the finished animation when it is done.

Thanks for the lovely feedback, vytas_rauckis!

I hope you have a lot of success with your project, and yes, I would like to see the result!

ENJOY.