I would like to know whether existing animation software environments have the ability to log when collisions happen. For example, let's say that someone kicks a can or puts a plate down on a table, I'd like to have that event logged somehow, with specific information about which objects collided, how hard, and what they are composed of. Am I pipe dreaming, or do utilities like this exist now?
Whoa! That would be awesome!
Sorry I haven't anything more helpful to say.
Most of the large software (Maya, Softimage, Houdini, 3ds) can allow you write something like this. You could detect which objects and what materials they have. "How hard" is an abstract concept--you could detect how fast the objects were moving when they collided, and use that for simulations.
for Flash, if you do a search on www.flashkit.com for collision in tutorials, you'll get a few hits. Unfortunately, they're not actual tutorials, but fla files that you can download with a working example.
apples : oranges ::