PATH ANIMATION WITH DEFORM

Nice. For those path animations where you need the object to bend along the path like for example a snake, worm, tail etc etc.

1. Bind your object(s) to a joint chain
2. Create a spline IK solver
3. Cluster the IK curve
4. Attach those clusters to a motion path
5. Offset each cluster's U value by 1 successive frame down the chain

Now you have each cluster following the motion path, driving the spline
IK deformations. Sweet!

Comments

Anonymous said…
Isn't this basically what the Animate > Motion Paths > Flow Path Object tool does?... First you would attach the object to your motion path/curve, then select the object and make it a flow path object... the object now automatically deforms along the curve path (and you have control over the resolution of the lattice that is deforming it.
8:05 PM
TheCrone said…
Yes True. This technique uses Clusters instead of a lattice so you can adjust the level of falloff by offsetting the time of each cluster.
2:02 PM
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