So I was studying animations, and I came across something I’m not sure how to accomplish. It’s a scene from HTTYD, where a small dragon bites one of the characters’ nose, and his nose stretches a bit. How would you animate that kind of deformation? Would you need to add some kind of stretcher bone in the nose? What if I want to push a stick against skin and move it around, how would you accomplish the skin being pushed inwards like that?
Here’s a screen of said scene.
Many possible ways of doing it: Sculpted shapes ie morphs, lattice cage deformer, bone rigged (scripted or not), and I’m sure there are other ways. Personally I would use a lattice cage to manipulate it.
Ahh, lattice. That seems like the most important thing I have completely missed so far lol. But thanks for pointing that out! That should def do the job.
there’s also the pretty awsome Warp deformer. blenderdiplom explains it better than I could: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzMVZa5OVBY&list=PLE8021F9820C6FB9C&index=23
For the situation in the screenshot (and a high quality close-up like that) it would make sense to use a custom solution with bones or shapekeys. But Warp is exactly what you’d want for the “stick” example. Move the “to” object a bit in relation to the “from” object, and you have a poke-deformation you can move anywhere on the model. Parenting “to” under “from” makes sense for that usage…
Ohh that looks very useful too, thanks! 
