Maya’s particle systems are powerful and flexible tools that can be used to generate many interesting effects. Why not create a script that uses particle data to construct curves and then uses those curves as the backbone for animating extruded geometry?

Inspired by the epic rope bridge as seen in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom", I made a simple bridge generator script. The focus of this project was to create a user friendly tool that is flexible enough to work anywhere within a 3D scene. By positioning a couple locators the user can quickly generate a bridge and tweak its appearance using attribute sliders that update in real time.

The animations within this project demonstrate the support offered by RenderMan for level-of-detail (LOD). Three models of a short length of spanish moss were made in Maya. Using LOD the renderer selects the appropriate model to render based on the area of screen space occupied by the model.