Blender Underground

anyone have a good way of making a spring, i cant seem to find a good easy way of doing it

I think it would be easiest to do with dupliframes.

The best way to create a spring is to use Blender's screw tool. Click the link to see a detailed description.

i read that a didnt understand a word of it

MJE, here's DaveC's own Rope Tutorial, which goes over using the screw tool.

There's also Greybeard's tutorial on making a phone cord, on his tutorials page: http://www.ibiblio.org/bvidtute/

Here's a blend file I set up. It's not a simple setup for a spring, but it's dynamic.

Curve Spring

Scaling the triangle rod mesh on the Z axis will flex the spring without distorting the loft.

I'd be interested in any other dynamic solutions. I tried using a lattice on the curve for Z action but it deforms all the geometry. I also tried using the curve modifier on a mesh, but that didn't work either.

I ended up creating hooks on all the curve verts and then parenting the hook empties to a set of verts in the triangle mesh.

Second one down. It has a script that makes springs I do believe.

My bad. I took the link down. It was bad. Will look for this script elsewhere.

It actually produces a spring-like physics in the game engine.

I know....That's what I meant by "bad" as in I thought is was making a spring... I was hoping to remove it before some diligent person caught on to my dodge...

LOL I must've been fast.

Blender needs a good dynamic spring object anyway...

Here's an improved version of the spring rig:

Spring Armature Blend

Let me know how it works! If I get time tomorrow I'll post a tutorial. Also, I'm really interested in knowing if there's a simpler way to do this.

thanks for all the replies, not had a chance to have a look yet because i have had a strange problem i cant sort out.... http://blenderunderground.com/forums/vi ... =3060#3060