Cell splitting.

[mattdleonard]

Hi,

I am having to animate a cell splitting into two cells and then two cells into four, etc.

The obvious choice of tool would be metaball’s but unfortunately there appears to be no system for Maya 7.

The problem is made worse by the fact that the cell’s need to be transparent.

I have tried a variety of techniques including Polygon Boolean but this doesn’t work because you can see the seam clearly once you make the object shader transparent.

I was wondering if anyone had successfully achieved this technique ?

I have attached a still to show the look I am going for, as far as I know this picture is real not cg.

Any advice would be gratefully received.

Many thanks in advance,

Matt

[J2thaC]

the closest thing I know to metaballs in Maya would be the blobby surfaces type of particle. You might be able to paint a couple of those with the particle tool and animate them with some simple dynamics.

[mattdleonard]

Thanks for your reply !

Unfortunately this cell needs to be of a higher quality then a simple particle, but thanks for your help.

Matt

[Silver]

Not sure this will help but in the May 2006 issue of 3d world mag theres a "how can i simulate bacterial cell division" tutorial. Its made for 3dsmax but it might be possible to follow that tutorial to achive the same result in Maya. Its not on their site yet, might be "to new". In the mag "they" say that there are support files for that tutorial on the stop press section of the website, but i cant find that section! You might need to sign up (free)

[mattdleonard]

Hi Silver,

That is really helpful, thankyou !

I have the magazine at work, I'll have a look when I get in this morning.

Thanks again.

Matt