Dont' know if this has been done before.... If so, I beg your collective pardon.... :) I put together a file that uses two props and the "point at" command to create a halfway decent effect with chains or ropes following a target. It works better than my attempts at getting a good result using IK or EMC.... See the attached graphic. The little yellow box is a "gravity" prop which makes the chain dip appropriately, rather than following the hand in a straight line. There is a second prop, hidden inside Homer's hand, which is being followed by the rest of the chain. I have explained this badly.... Sorry. The graphic may explain it better than I do. If this is useful to anyone, I can e-mail the file on request. Err, it uses Scoopey's 25 link chain. I am wondering if anyone could create a Python script to automate the setup. I guess I should talk to Okham.... :)

oooooh. which part of the chain is following the box??

The second link is following the gravity box. Then I have a three link buffer zone which is not following anything. The remaining links gradually increase in "point at" value from .025 to .5. Works pretty well, although the gravity box requires a tiny bit of manual tweaking.

The chain movement looks very convincing. Well done.

wow, a tutorial on your method.... would make us not so capable emc folks have a chance! Very nice

Err.... Tutorial? Yess.... I always feared that this day would come.... I had hoped to maybe share the file and let it speak for itself. Umm. I will see what I can cook up, however.... And, umm. No EMC involved. Very simple use of the "point at" command. It just takes a little bit of time and (in my case) a calculator to set it up. :) Thanks for the comments. If anyone wants to try a copy, e-mail me or message me or something.

WOW! Thats stunning. I will IM you my email address, but have you considered supplying a download link to the file? If you like I could host it on my site, if you dont have web space.

Thanks, lesbentley. I haven't heard anything from Scoopey, whose chain file is used, so I can't post this anywhere. Actually, it may be questionable for me to e-mail it at all. Hmm. Umm. Also, my test above works well, but may have been too simple. Upon trying a more complex test, in which the chain should move in three dimensions instead of just two, I find that the gravity prop becomes a bit unwieldy and results are less predictable. I am still testing and tweaking. If I don't hear back from Scoopey, I may convert the process to a simple figure of my own design. Then I can take you up on your generous offer for webspace. :) Thank you!

Attached Link: chain_30link.zip

I knocked together a 30 link chain figure, in case you did not get a response from Scoopy. The actual links are made out of English Bobs Morphing Torus, and he allows redistribution, see a copy of his terms of use below, so if anyone needs a chain that can be redistributed, just DL it from the link above. -------------------- Terms of use ~~~~~~~~~~~~ You can do what you like with this, with two provisos: 1) Don't pretend you made it. 2) Don't sell it without offering me a cut first :)

I just updated the contents of the "chain_30link.zip" to fix a small bug and place the BODY's centre of rotation at the base of link #1. If your zip contains "Chain-30Link2.cr2" then you have the latest version.

Lol. I haven't seen anyone use my Homer figure in a long,long time. It's nice to see one of my oldest creations is still being used. If you want to include that in your zip file. Feel free to do that Cage. ScottA

Golly, Scott.... Sorry, I forgot to mention that the figure pictured in my example animation is the WONDERFUL HOMER SIMPSON FIGURE by ScottA.... I have a bad habit of forgetting to give credit. Umm. Sorry. I'll try to work on that.... :)