I can’t be the only one who’s wanted to do this since it’s the only option.
To make an object move exactly along the surface of an object no matter how it animates, the only thing that can be done is to create a path from or snapped to the surface of many vertices of the object itself, then have the animated object follow that path with the follow path constraint.
However, the most tedious part is parenting every single hook to every single nearest vertex of a target mesh. Is there a script that can automate this process? If you click on a vertex, you can “hook to new object”, but for creating an animation path you want almost the opposite to happen where the hook that deforms a path is parented to a vertex.
Ideally, blender would have an option to for “ctrl+p -> parent to nearest vertex” and you could just do that for all hooks/empties at once.
Constrain something to any arbitrarily deforming object. Nothing less than path hooks will do. I would appreciate if you addressed the actual topic instead of derailing it.
heh. wow. ok… There ARE actually smarter and easier ways to do this. I was keeping an eye for your response and was going to take the time away from my project to help, but if you’re going to be a jerk, forget it. Not worth my time…
You were being a jerk to begin with when you trolled me trying to derail my topic when I had done nothing wrong to you. Because you chose to come here and then chose to waste your own time in the act of ironically stating you wanted to avoid doing so, your skills aren’t valuable enough to warrant professional application and thus you never had an answer to begin with, which is even further evidence you’re a troll. Reported.
I have over 15 years of personal and professional experience in this arena. Having learned far more from internet forums and self help than I ever did in college, I donate a LOT of my personal time helping others learn the trade as I did. It’s my way of giving back to the community.
So to call me a troll for wanting to help by suggesting another avenue for your problem is ridiculous and childish. There are a lot of experienced folks here that also donate their time to help others. This is NOT a tech support hotline. We are not paid employees that “better answer your question with a yes sir, or else.” We are doing this out of the kindness of our hearts.
No one forced you to be here, but yet again, you choose to waste your time as well as that of others with long-winded bickering instead of providing this alleged solution, proving you’re a troll. What’s worse is that you think pretending to have an answer is an acceptable excuse to enact toxicity. Reported yet again.
How was he trolling? You asked a very broad question, and hes asking for specifics to more easily be able to assist you. Keep in mind that noone is obligated to help you, hes actually taking time off his spare time to try to come with a solution and work with you.
He’s not here out of “kindness”, he’s here to make himself look good. This is proven because his very first response not only went on a random tangent about some ocean waves nobody mentioned, but he instantly jumped to “other methods” that nobody asked for.
I specified what I wanted, but he was clearly trying to derail my thread in order to monopolize it to something he more specifically knew so that he could make himself look/feel good, not with my interest in mind. I specified what I wanted, I said over and over “hooks and paths” and he ignored it
Then you’ve disciplined him, because anything less shows your site approves of his continued toxic behavior.
I’m talking about him instantly trying to change the topic to only his own interest, then bickering with me when I politely asked him to stay on topic.
If you’re more curious about arguing than a peaceful resolution and publicly posting information that would benefit numerous users, then that means his behavior is your fault because you’ve condoned the toxic behavior over allegedly “years” that he’s clearly adopted as a result.
Please read this reply carefully. Lets break it down…
He says that the solution you’re looking for depends - And hes asking specifically what you’re trying to achieve. I have no doubt that he knows what hes talking about, cause hes been around and given some really solid replies in the past.
All hes tried to do was to look into your case. He never derailed it.
You didnt ask a quick “how to bevel” question, with a single solid answer. You asked a workflow type question, which has more often than not several solutions, and finding the right one for you does heavily depend on specifically what you’re trying to achieve.
His reaction may have been a bit abrupt, but so was your reply to him. Its actually extremely rare that we get any trolling in support threads. Every single troll case i’ve dealt with up until now has happened in the general discussion section.
He is ignoring what I had already specific I wanted to achieve.
Anyone can make up any story on the internet, and regardless, it isn’t an excuse for him to act toxic.
He instantly tried to shift the goal to other methods instead of the method I specified. I went into detail about a specific method that he ignored.
He is trying to tell me what I want instead of listening to what I myself specified I want. This is not the mark of someone who has the interest of the poster in mind. It’s fine if there’s multiple solutions to a question, but he was trying to change the question entirely.
And so was his reply to me.
Which is irrelevant, he still did it. If you don’t speak out against it now, then he will think it is acceptable to act this way in the future.
This is an issue you see popping up on sites like Stack Overflow, where someone asks a specific question and then “experts” come in and state “You don’t want that, you want this” and don’t address the original question.
@PixelLove3D If you could post a simple blend, I could try writing a script to do this for you. I haven’t done this kind of thing before in Blender and the Hook modifier seems weird(Vertex Group, which is how I thought you’d accomplish this, doesn’t seem to work).
This conversation really isn’t going anywhere. @PixelLove3D, if you would like to try again, you’re welcome to post your question in the Support section again. However @cgCody’s response was not out of line. He was asking for specifics.
I’d recommend following @obsurveyor’s advice and post a simple example Blend that clearly shows what you’re trying to do. Then I’m sure that any number of people could write the script you’re asking for.
I recommend you do that in a new thread, though, because I’m closing this one.