Klein Bottle Morph

I’m working on a series of two animations of Klein bottles and how they separate into Möbius strips…


For the uninitiated, the Klein-bottle is a topological object with no inside or outside. Nancy Hocking is working on a Klein Bottle based exhibition, and is working with me on two animations of the bottle. Nancy is commissioning the animations, which are based on her storyboards, and she will also be providing pencil-drawn background images.

This is what we have so far…

This is achieved with two videos of the bottle fading into each other… one of the bottle being drawn (build modifier) and one of the bottle splitting.

The bottle splitting is achieved with shape keys - I contemplated rigging the bottle, but I think shape keys will work just as well. However - if anyone can direct me to a tutorial on non-relative shape keys, AKA absolute shape keys, that would be useful.

Some more of the animation… Done entirely in relative shape-keys…

Though I am adding some fabric simulation at the end…

A new storm… this time based around clouds drawn by Nancy Hocking rather than time-lapse footage…

More of the animation…

No prizes for spotting where the fabric simulation kicks in.

[video]https://youtu.be/8Zo3snv9-4U[/video]

At the moment everything is going past at 12 fps as … it looks more like pencil animation that way… but I’m thinking of having the clouds go past at 24 fps and the foreground at 8 fps

nice work!