Okay so I have a new project from school, a challenge in 3D known on internet as the "Endless Engine Challenge", and our team decided to do a flying creature. We are not fixed on the concept right now, but for one concept we need feathers simulation.
Since I'm the one doing the FX on the project, I started looking to know if it was possible or not, and I found at lest 3 way to do that without using any other app than Maya. We have the Stand In + Mash way, the XGen way and the plane and Alpha way. I didn't try the plane and Alpha way yet, but here is my result for the 2 method.
For this one I downloaded a free mesh of a feather that I export as an .ass (yes it's the real name of an stand in export, funny isn't it ?) and imported the stand in in a new scene where I had rigged and skinned a basic wing without feathers, just to be able to move it and see if it looks good or not. I used the mash to have a multitude of feathers at random and tried 2 method to make them stick to the mesh, adding the mesh in the mash proprieties or using a curve to put my feather on it. The curve didn't worked at all.
For my second attempt I tried using XGen on Maya. XGen is supposed to be used for grass, hair or fur, but I was able to create a feather shape by playing with the width settings. I had some problem with the groom tool, who is supposed let use comb our fur (or here feathers), but some of them were.... stubborn. The flow of the feathers follow correctly the skin of my wing and is somewhat clean, but is not moving realistically. I need to do more research on that.
