How to create a smooth bendy effect in Blender?

Support Animation and Rigging
1

Hello,

I’m wondering how I can create this smooth bendy effect in Blender without any weights or shape keys.

http://community.cgcookie.com/uploads/default/original/3X/7/9/7931541f4b8960839bbcac10903a47aacc272b59.gif

All advice are welcome!

2

Depends on what you want to do with this bending. Do you need an armature or not ? Do you wish to export this animation or not.

One option without an armature is to use the Simple Deform modifier

See attached demo file. Change the deform angle in the modifier settings

Attachments

bend.blend (88.1 KB)