Newton's Corner

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Finis
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Newton's Corner

Post by Finis »


https://vimeo.com/493911775/f4f65783d2

Newton's Cradle but with the energy going around a corner. Inspired by a CG challenge "impossible object". I think this doesn't qualify since it is impossible physics instead.

Crashes, bugs, unexpected peculiarities with the physics system, strange work-arounds, and my unfamiliarity with the finer points of the physics system and animation made this difficult but also an educational project.

This is my first video at 60 fps other than tests. About 2 hours to render 1000 frames. Blender 2.90, Cycles, 204 samples, no denoise.
Last edited by Finis on 02 Jan 2021, 00:48, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Newton's Corner

Post by FHembree »

Very impressive but my first thought is that it seems like what you wanted to do would have been easier in Truespace. To create the animation in Truespace wouldn't all you would have to do is simply move the objects and create a key frames for each of the desired position of the balls. No physics needed. Of course I'm thinking of version 7.61.

I was planning on doing a burning cigarette lighter inside of a glass sphere but I could not figure out how to model or render it so I abandoned it after failed attempts and also could not get a glass sphere to look like a glass sphere. :oops: :D
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Re: Newton's Corner

Post by Finis »

@FHembree Thanks! I used physics because I intended to simulate one Newton's cradle with it so the bouncing would be realistic and I would get subtle movements of the balls between. If well done keyframing could do that or the simplest would look mechanical. Can't say my efforts with simulation did much better. I planned to copy, rotate, and move the cradle, make some balls invisible to render, and have the animation I wanted. Unfortunately, Blender's tools were not helpful for that. Also CG physics are for CG so some real things don't happen with that kind of simulation. I have better ideas of how to do it now.

Your lighter in a sphere gave me an idea for the challenge. Yeah, glass is troublesome in most renderers. Maybe you could do it in a non-realistic style.

I may be mistaken but I think in simple perfection opposite balls on one line would move as a normal cradle while the perpendicular line of balls would remain stationary. In reality various complexities would soon create chaos. Either way this object would not bounce like that.
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Re: Newton's Corner

Post by bitkar »

I think its totally possible, if the balls are glued to the bottom and they are somewhat bouncy :)
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Re: Newton's Corner

Post by Finis »

bitkar wrote: 28 Dec 2020, 10:12I think its totally possible, if the balls are glued to the bottom and they are somewhat bouncy :)
Ha ha, that is how the previous one was done. Two active physics balls bounced off of two passive physics balls.

Updated video in earlier post. Now it has alternating bounces. After much crashing and bugs I used physics to animate two cradles. Then I converted the outer two bouncing balls to keyframes, removed physics, edited and copied the keyframes for one bounce. Not much better than total keyframing as FHembree recommended. I learned much about the physics simulation though.
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Re: Newton's Corner

Post by bitkar »

ok, now its wierd :D
ya, sometimes its good to take longer way to learn along the way.
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Re: Newton's Corner

Post by Prodigy »

Love it.. Now i was thinking how to achieve this in reality... i imagine adding a 45 angle corner to the "corner" ball. Very Inspiring idea.. :bananathumb:
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