Animating a sail being unfurled...any ideas???

I need to create an animation of a sail being furled and unfurled
around a mast. The only idea I have is to create multiple
configurations of the sail in different states of being unfurled. Does
anyone have any other ideas of how to show this. I need to show this in
a presentation.

 

Animation apps like 3ds max or Maya have built-in cloth simulation
tools and could do this for you. I don't think SolidWorks has anything
like this, but if there is 3rd party tool, I don't know how it would
fit into the rendering pipeline. Even cloth sim tools need a lot of
finesse work to get what you want.

If you are using a video editor, you could build the various
configurations of the sail, render still images at 2 to 5 second
intervals and crossfade between them. By fading between the still
images, you will give the audience a sense of time-lapse and continuity
without having to build hundreds of configurations. Doing this, the
final presentation format would likely have to be video (Quicktime or
Windows Media?)

Joel
http://www.frameworkmedia.com/

 

Check out www.mikejwilson.com

Page 4 has an animated flag and on page 5 "Unwindable Spirals", either maybe
useful to you.

John Layne
www.solidengineering.co.nz