Animating object based on the location of others. (point-scan data to object)

Support Animation and Rigging
1

Dear BlenderArtists,

I am faced with an issue.
I received a file containing 8 animated boxes.
Each box holds the scanned animation data from a real-life cardiac valve.
http://puu.sh/jvrKT/ab1810753f.png
In order to visualize the animation of the valve better, we would like to copy these transformations onto a torus (which forms the outside of the valve.)
http://puu.sh/jvs0S/f04ac8d28b.png
Currently I am working around it by creating a shape-key for the torus in every keyframe, but this is not an accurate or efficient way of doing this.

Suggestions or alternative aproaches would be appreaciated so much!

Ristridyn

2

I have an example for you to follow. First create an armature, with a bone at the centroid of each cube. It basically parents an armature to your Torus with Automatic Weights. Then in the bone constraints, you want to copy the location of the animated cube closest to each bone.
HeartValve.blend (715 KB)

Hope it helps.

Let me know, I’m really curious if it comes close to what you had in mind!!!

3

Hi Ristidryn,

Looks like it could be a contender for hooks.

Here is a sample file

The “torus” is a circle with a circle as a bevel.

The torus circle has 8 control points, an empty hook is added to each. Moving the hooks deforms the torus.

Attachments

hooks.blend (91.2 KB)

4

I like the hooks option better, that’s awesome. Thanks for sharing batFINGER :yes: