I’m modelling a washing machine and was thinking of having the gasket (the rubbery bit between the drum and the outer walls highlighted here) move and warp dynamically with the drum (e.g. an unbalanced load spinning inside)* — ideally through Modifiers, or through Geometry Nodes if not. The drum’s rotation shouldn’t affect the gasket, but tilt and motion should.
I don’t think the shape of the visible part is complicated.
I think you can make a cross section with the edge of the curve or mesh and rotate it using the Screw modifier.
It would be nice to make that modeling into one topology modeling, but I think we can also separate it if it’s hard.
I think you can make an A that is exposed to the outside and make a B that is internal and is exposed to some outside separately.
I think the rigging can use bones and make them deform properly with weight paint.
※ I’m not a rigging expert, so it might not be the right way.
the simplest method . . . the checker pattern is so you can see the effect . . .
A gradient weight paint across the depth of the seal gasket with the active end attached via a Hook modifier to an Empty that controls ONLY the lateral movements of the drum.
The drum is attached to another Empty that controls the rotation, this rotation Empty is also parented to the Lateral Empty. . . .
If you want to move the entire washing machine use a 3rd Empty and Parent the gasket directly to that along with the root of the washing machine.
The only other (minor-ish) problem I did face was with only the forwardmost lip wobbling around – even though I did try and weight-paint the thingy properly. In my experience, though, a simple subdivide is more than enough to solve it.
The bellows with, and then without, the subdivision modifier; just to give you an idea of what I was talking about.
The weight-paint job I did then
At least three can be used for smooth motion, and more edges can be used as needed.
Weight paint is a setting for the Vertex group.
The edges are small, so there is not enough Vertex for weight paint.
The subdivision modifier does not affect the above settings.
