Maya Dynamica Plugin

From Physics Simulation Wiki

Contents 1 Dynamica History 2 Download 3 Features of the Dynamica Maya plugin 4 Manual 5 Video Tutorials 6 Sample files 7 Support 8 SIGGRAPH 2011

Dynamica History

Disney Animation Studios contributed their in-house Maya plugin called 'Dynamica' to the Bullet project. This Dynamica plugin was used for physics special effects in the creation of the animated feature Bolt.

Download

• The source code of the Dynamica plugin has its own repository at http://dynamica.googlecode.com
• Precompiled versions of the Dynamica plugin can be downloaded from http://code.google.com/p/bullet/downloads/list

Features of the Dynamica Maya plugin

• Dynamica is cross-platform and works on Windows, Linux and Mac OSX
• Dynamica runs on Maya 8, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012.
• Active, passive, and kinematic rigid bodies
• Sphere, Box, Hull(convex), and Mesh(concave) collision shapes
• Force breakable Nail, Hinge, Slider, and Six-degrees-of-freedom constraints
• Frame based choreography control and simulation baking
• The plugin exports to COLLADA Physics format and the native .bullet binary physics file format

Manual

Here is the Dynamica user manual

Video Tutorials

Some video tutorials how to use Dynamica are available on-line. You can download (right-click - save) or watch those instruction movies on-line. !! Note: These are slightly out of date, but the current version (2.78) supports similar workflows.

• Maya Plugin Intro (28Mb)
• Using Maya Force Fields (17Mb)
• Creating Donuts (11Mb)
• Creating Peanuts, used in Disney's Bolt Movie (29Mb)
• Part of Bolt trailer with Peanuts shot (26Mb)

Sample files

• Maya sample files are included in the Bullet SDK under Bullet/Extras/MayaPlugin/scenes

Support

• You can discuss issues about the Dynamica Maya plugin in this section of the Physics Forums
• Dynamica discussion on CG Society forums: http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=86&t=675357

SIGGRAPH 2011

• Dynamica was shown at our http://bulletphysics.org/siggraph2011 SIGGRAPH 2011 course "Destruction and Dynamics

for Film and Game Production"

fig 1. Example of destruction created with Dynamica v2.78

Watch the Dynamica Intro video from Siggraph 2011 here: http://mbakr.squarespace.com/blog/siggraph-2011-destruction-dynamics-for-film-and-game-product.html