Hello,
Is it possible to animate the taper of a Bezier curve?
I want to animate the shape of the curve with a lattice on the taper.
Thanks
have you tried to hook the taper vertices to empties?
No, but I think it would be more complicated than with a lattice.
the problem is that the changes you make to the taper object in Object mode don’t seem to affect the beveled curve
You can. You probably just need to enable the “Apply on spline” button on the taper curve’s Lattice modifier.
Can also do it with shapekeys on the curve, I’d consider that easier.
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Bandages, I can’t find the button you’re talking about
There are four buttons next to the modifier name. For curve modifiers, in order, these are: apply on spline; display modifier in edit mode; display modifier in viewport; use modifier during render.
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wow interesting thanks a lot
Very handy, although it doesn’t work on all curve modifiers (like I don’t know why smooth won’t work on splines) and sometimes the behavior’s a little weird-- like a shrinkwrap will shrinkwrap the controls and handles both.
in what occasion do you use modifiers for curves?
All sorts of situations. Shrinkwrap, lattice, mesh deform are handy for following other meshes. Armatures, hooks, warps, waves are useful for more manual animation. Soft body speaks for itself. And of course, you have OP’s situation, where they want to animate a taper with a lattice.
Why not use the modifiers on the curve mesh, rather than the spline? Because curves are useful for more than meshes-- as paths, as spline IK, as bevel and taper objects, and more-- and because you can do more with a curve deformed mesh object than you can with a simple curve object.
yes, armature, shrinkwrap, hooks, of course, but actually I didn’t know about the possibility to act on the curve vertices with the lattice 
thanks