Hi everyone,

I'm trying to recreate the same web animation methodology that was done in the first Spiderman, particularly the one when Peter webbed a lunch try during lunch at school.

http://www.youtube.c…h?v=UMzqvxXRXM4 [youtube.c]

I have done some research and, just to summarize, I have found that it was done by procedurally propel virtual jets of particles looking like viscous liquid, which then solidify as it made contacts with its target.

I have done my tests and I'm now facing two main problems.
The first is how to “solidify”/freeze the emission and the entire web structure as it is, once the first particles reach their targets.
The second is how can I connect points between the main filaments that determines the direction of the emission, varying the structure of the web. Right now I'm using a Sort SOP to randomize the emitted point numbers and create not ordered connections, but of course the numbers change continuously over time making everything unstable..

Does anybody know how can I solve these problems or improve this kind of asset?

Here is the file I'm referring to.

Looking forward to hear from you guys,
Thanks a lot!

Hi again guys,

I worked on both the velocity attribute to stop the particle emission and used the particle ID to connect the particles with an Add SOP. I think I'm getting what expected, but I have to refine the asset.

Right now I have three attraction points which splits the emission in three main flows of particles. The velocity attribute stop the emission once the first particle from any of the three flows gets to its respective attraction point and its velocity becomes zero. I was wondering how it would be possible to make this condition true at all three attraction points once the first particle reach them, and only after that stop the emission.
This is to make all the branches of the web reaching their respective anchor point before “solidify”..

Than I applied a rand function to the ID attribute in a Sort SOP as second argument of an if expression, otherwise the randomization would keep going even after the velocity becoming zero. The problem I have is that of course once the web freeze like, it also looses the random value.

Thank you for any input!

Hi,
I had a quick look at your scene and to be honest I think you should be knocking out small tests to see the viability of what you are trying to do.
I would be looking at the wire solver / sop solver / and building a simple way of getting a single line flying out from a source ./ hitting a point and being flexible.

Hope you keep up with the idea and post your files

rob

Hi circusmonkey,

thank you for your reply.

At the beginning I had a go with trails, curve tool on single lines/curves, but I haven't tried SOP or Wire solvers, even if I was thinking to go into them later once achieved a decent webbing and refine its behavior. After a bit of research on previous case studies (on Spiderman especially) I ended up thinking that using particles I could achieve a more “flexible”/procedural asset if you like, especially thinking at the scenes where it is going to be implemented.

Anyway I will investigate more into SOP and Wire solver to see how I can better use them.

As soon as I have something to show I'll post it.

Hi everyone again,

if I have a surface which I refine with clothRefine SOP and then I delete the primitive but keeping the points (which is not much different from scatter the surface of points), how can I connect the points back with an Add SOP in a way to get such a refined mesh, but with a less triangulation kind of look.

Like a thick spiderweb..

Any suggestion will be most appreciated

What if you tried creating a web shader for your surface, instead of creating actual lines?!? In that case you can keep your cloth surface…

If I had the cloth method figured out I wouldn't worry about deleting primitives and generating lines, might even bee overkill to generate so many wires in the viewport.

Yes,

I agree that it's probably better to go ahead and improve the solution at following stages.

Thanks Rafaels for your reply