animated extrusion

[tica]

I need to extrude an object along a path (like with the serpent plu-in), BUT I need the object's origin to stay at the beginning of the motion path. I would describe this as an animated rail extrusion, like a tube that "grows" along a path, extending over time. Any hints on how to do this?

[HowardM]

yep, real easy!
use an image, black and white, as a clip map moving along an axis to reveal the tube...then morph the tube to the shape you want....

[Lightwolf]

Model your tube to any lenght you want to.
Create a morph marget where you shrink down all points to the base disc.
In Layout, load the tube, deform it with a chain of bones to your delight.
Now Morph.
Presto!

[tica]

the clipmap idea is simple and effective, but we have a very dynamic camera path, and it's not easy to control the clipmap with a camera that twists and turns in relation to an object that also twists and turns.
i tried to morph between the "initial" tube and the "final" tube (deformed with bones), but i get very strange results:
- when i use the initial (short) form as my base obj and morph towards the final (extended and deformed) version, the short tube doesn't conform to the deformation, and just extends into the undeformed tube
- when i do the opposite, morphing from the extended+deformed version into the short tube, the tube starts to bend into all sorts of directions, and doesn't shrink.
what am i missing?

[HowardM]

yes it is easy to control...use a null as a reference in the surface panel...even parent the null to the camera then move it along the axis at any time...

:)

[Arte]

Originally posted by tica
I need to extrude an object along a path (like with the serpent plu-in), BUT I need the object's origin to stay at the beginning of the motion path. I would describe this as an animated rail extrusion, like a tube that "grows" along a path, extending over time. Any hints on how to do this?

If I understand you right, you can do this in modeler with rail extrude. Set the path to the direction you want but use a fixed number for segmentation and create the various morph targets so all objects are uniform poly and pointwise.

Then use LW regular morph with multiple targets.

Sorry if I misunderstood you.

X

[Nigel]

you may find possible solutions to your question at the other end of these links.

an extreme solution, but may work
http://www.blochi.com/gfx/obj_seq_en.html

http://kagedio.infoseek.livedoor.com/pg_a.html
Download the 2 zips from the box at the bottom of the page, they contain mpg's of this plugin in action.

Too bad there's no english version of that site.

hope that helps

[tica]

Thanks, Nigel. The 2nd plug-in was exactly was I was looking for. It seems to work very well, and it's very simple to use - great!

[pixelranger]

Hi.

I didn't figure it out. I could use some more time on it, but I've got a deadline coming up, so I guess this is my only hope. I didn't find any english docs on the page either.
Lets say I have a snake, like the one in the mpgs. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

What I have to make, eventually, is some kind of glaze coming out of a bottle and twirling into a spiral on a muffin. I can divide the shot as I want but it has to illustrate that the glaze is coming out of the bottle.
I'd be most grateful if someone could shed some light on this subject. Hopefully some of you may have done anything similar before?


André

[tica]

André,

I've used it just a few times some time ago, but I'll try to explain anyway.
Take the snake in the mpgs, for example.
Model a disc with the detail you need.
Trace a spline, that defines the path for the extrusion. Load both into a scene.
Apply the plug-in as a displacement effect on the disc. In the dialog box that shows up when you edit the effect, you have to choose the spline in the first pull-down list, and then just input the value for the extrusion - 100% will extrude the disc along the full extension of the spline.
It looked pretty straightforward to us, if you should need more help just let me know.

[pixelranger]

Great!! Very nice plugin! I think I can use it in as a workaround for my shot. Thanks for the ultrafast reply and for the solution. I owe you one ;) I really do!

Regards,
André Mikal Hitsøy

[tica]

Yes, I also think it's very simple and effective. It was a great solution for what I had to do on a project some time ago.
Enjoy!

[Red_Oddity]

Lightwave itself comes with such a plugin aswell...

-1, Make tube
-2, Make Morph (like with the skeleton trick)
-3 Trace a spline.
-4 Load both in Layout
-5 Apply CurveCOnform Displacement (can be found under the Deform tab in Properties)
-6 Set it to autosize, choose the curve/spline, set Align and Stretch
-7 animate the Morph with Morphmixer.

Offcourse the PG_A plugin works aswell, and without the hassle of animating the Morph.