Hello, I made a simple spring asset.

It takes two points, and computes all the stretching and aiming. There's 4 styles of springs, some with hooks on the end, and some without. There's also ramps to control coil distribution and radius along the length.

Its simple enough, but can get slow when there is tons of points, which you need for a smooth result. There's also no uvs yet.

You can get the hip over here [richardlord.tumblr.com]

Very cool!

Can you put these springs in to a simulation and have the interact? For example, could you create 10 springs and drop them onto a plane and expect them to bounce around and off each other?

I know, I'm asking too much…

I haven't done this, but they are poly lines before they go though the poly wire that turns them into geometry. So I bet you could sim those poly lines with either the wire solver, or maybe the FEM one to get the result you are after.

It'd be a fun test!

Very nice, and nice render! did you use mantra…? skyligth nou?

Thanks chevita. Its mantra with a really simple setup. Just two area lights and an environment light with one of the bundled hdrs on it.

I'm just finishing up a longer render, and i'll post the scene file once its done so you can check it out. I think mantra renders look great, but sometimes you have to wait awhile for them to be done….

rich_lord thank!
Sound so easy when you said that. thank
2 area ligth and environment ligth! WoooW!
I know mantra will be best.
Mantra now is best than mental ray.

Here's some quick renders showing a couple of ways to add these springs into a scene post-sim. Sorry about the colors, I was tired and went to bed without giving it much thought.
You can get all the hip files here [richardlord.tumblr.com]. They all have ROPs in though, so you'll need to re-render them to see anything.

The first gif's oddly fascinating. Thanks for sharing these.

Ha ha, this is really fun. Nice work.