How to animate a kite tail?

Question

I would like to animate a kite kind of character for a little animation. Unfortunately i'm running into a couple of issues when it comes to (easily) animating the tail.

Now, i want the tail to "Straighten out" progressively in the direction of the bone that's connected to the kite itself. While also still trailing the movements of the main body, regardless of scene wind or gravity direction.

I've gotten nowhere so far so i stripped my scene down to a skeleton so there is as little mess as possible. I would prefer bones, as i can mess with those in the target project easily.

List item

vklidu · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-29T07:14:45.143

5

Cloth Simulation

Simple Cloth simulation seems to work quite well with Wind effector.

.

Just play anim and move (G) the Empty arround.
It can be used as a proxy mesh for more detailed model with Surface Deform Modifier.

Spring Bone add-on

just a quick test ... it has gravity parametr, but they can't be influence by effectors like wind.
Download add-on from Github

Add-on in included in blend file too.

edited Jun 29 '20 at 07:14

answered Jun 27 '20 at 18:23

vklidu

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... and if @egg_etc really does want bones, they can always be bound to your cloth sim like this.. but it's a rather long video. – Robin Betts Jun 27 '20 at 18:36
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@RobinBetts I was sure I saw it somewhere :) thanks. Also there was an addon jiggle bones that would probably worked as well, but I think he wants to avoid physics, right? – vklidu Jun 27 '20 at 19:02
We'll see. Your answer seems just right, to me. – Robin Betts Jun 27 '20 at 19:35
I think jiggle bones is the thing im looking for actually! Didnt know they involved physics though... – eggsackqueuethor Jun 28 '20 at 06:18
Nice find! That's a really useful one – Robin Betts Jun 28 '20 at 18:23

How to animate a kite tail?

1 Answers1

Cloth Simulation

Spring Bone add-on

Linked