@JuhaW : I spent some time testing the most recent version and I see that you handled the exception errors, very nice !
Besides that, as I was using the workflow it became clear that Empties are “cleaner” than mesh models when it comes to pointing to an external reference for Simple Deform. Therefore I think that the extra steps of creating an Empty at the location and orientation of the currently selected model, selecting this Empty, and rotating it around its X, Y, or Z to control a second bend could all be integrated into the panel as well - as shown in the following image. What do you think ?
I must say that I cannot imagine working without this Local Rotation tool from now on, as it really proves out to be such a huge time saver. I can’t wait to use it extensively on my current projects and I’ll definitely record some footage of it to show how useful it can be !
@Ricky : if I am not mistaken what you describe sounds like a completely different thing altogether … Maybe that would deserve a dedicated thread ?
I see what you mean yeah - but how would one rotate the empty as easily as the local axis of the main model ?
For instance, rotating the local axis of a model using the tool is instantaneous (the little < > buttons are clickable up to 8 times in a second, more or less), whereas rotating an empty would require to type “+/-90” multiple times into its rotation fields until the proper angle is found. Either that, or the user could also explore the rotation angle using the freehand rotate tool, but I am not aware of a way to snap to incremental angles with that. You can see me struggle starting at 0:55 in the video below - after a few tries I couldn’t find the angle I was looking for to bend the model in the second direction. I think this would have been solved if XYZ < > model rotation buttons (with 90 as default) had been there …
That said maybe I am missing something. I’d love to know if there is a way to do that more easily !
But besides that the button to create an empty is already very useful. Thanks again for your willingness to participate in this, this is sincerely appreciated !
Oh, very nice ! That looks more predictable than regular ctrl-snapping to a surface. And without a doubt this is also going to be useful in many other circumstances too (not necessarily involving bending !)
On my end whenever time allows I’ll try to see what I can do regarding regular rotation buttons. After all that could be a good opportunity for me to get my hands dirty with very simple macros/scripts
JuhaW : would it be possible to make an addon version of the script ? It seems like it is solid enough for release (and from there I could very well do a video presentation of it)
Thank you so much for your time JuhaW. This is extremely useful !!
Here is a very simple video showing it in action. It seems very simple, but I think anyone who ever attempted to use SimpleDeform will be able to appreciate the value added by this tool.
Awesome stuff! I am impressed with the progress so far! The simple deform has been too “simple” for too long! I am thrilled to see people attemting to extend the functionality of this workflow! Kudos Pior and JuhaW!
[Edit] : ha, it seems like it is another version of the tool, with the difference that it doesn’t counteract the rotation of the object ? I tried using it in pose mode and edit mode on the bones of an armature but it didn’t seem to do anything in that context. I could see cases where this could be a helpful thing to have indeed.
That is undoubtedly useful addon, especially for the game development! I was struggling with changing the rotation for quite a while (Didn’t want to use 3ds max for one action). And now it can be done easily in blender. Thank you!
sorry for digging this thread up, i was looking for a solution for bend modifier and stumble upon here. Installed @JuhaW 's addon to blender 3.0.1 but cant find it anywhere, so i assume it doesnt work for newer blender versions. Any chance of updating this please ? Thank you !
I’ve always wondered why “simple deform” never seemed to do what I wanted; coming from Maya it felt like such a basic function to bend an object without having to fuss with empties. @JuhaW I’d also love to see an update for this addon, it looks super useful!
That said 2.8+ does make the process a little easier than before now that it is possible to manually edit the transforms with the Affect Only > Origins option so that’s that. Not sure if it is possible to manipulate the Origins by snap rotate increments though …
