Is there a way to deform an armature based on a curve?
Thanks for the help.
I have no idea why you would want to do this, maybe you could explain.
If you use the B-Bones option for Armatures and use Sections for bones they behave like B-Spline Curves.
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I’ll give you an example.
You can deform a long cylender using a curve, then instead of modeling a pice of string laying all over the floor… you just put the curve into position.
What if you want a chain though? the indevidual pieces, they only rotate. You cant use a curve, or it will deform the chain. So you give it a bone for every link in the chain.
So can I still defom the bones with a curve?
Both of the things you describe can be done quicker and easier with curves.
For the string, simply make a path (3D curve) make the string go where you want. Then make a nurb or bezier circle the thickness you want the string and set the object name to ‘BevOb’ for the path (in Edit buttons).
The second description of a chain can be done with dupliframes and a curve. Look at this.
However, I wouldn’t know how to get each individual link in the chain to move on its own. I suppose for that you would have to model each individual link in the chain, give each a bone (or rotate them manually), or there might be a way to do it with ik’s.
If you are looking to animate it then it may be a better question for the Animation forum.
Directly, I think you may be able to deform an armature with a curve using the modifier stack (although it doesn’t look like it).
However, if you constrain hooks to each joint in an armature and use the curve to influence the position of the hooks (using constraints), it might work.
Of course, your best bet may be to use Bbones.
I would use B-Bone(s); each bone can have 32 Segments.
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