Alright. So for context, I’m trying to model a robotic arm that has a section that opens up like a flip phone. I’m doing this on a shapekey.
I can’t figure out how to “straighten” the part that contains the “screen” when it’s open. It’s fine closed, since I want it to follow the shape of the arm.
So I want to keep the same thickness, just make it into a rectangle.
Is that even possible without using stuff like lattice? BTW will lattice even work with shapekeys?
It looks like your mesh already has thickness built in.
This would be much easier, if you had only a planar mesh (even if curved) and used a Solidify modifier to get the desired thickness.
If you have a curved zero-thickness mesh (like pictured above without the thickness),
then to setup the shape-key:
put the 3d-cursor at some vertex in the mesh,
change the Transform_Pivot_Point to “3D Cursor”,
then Scale the mesh along one of the coordinate axes
(for instance, with hotkeys: S Z 0 (zero))
then store this planar result as the shape-key.
I hope i’ve understood your situation correctly.
Good luck.
Is this what you are trying to do?
You might ty to delete the inner part except the border and using the Loop Tools addon Gstretch feature on all for border sides like so (maybe don’t delete the next inner part and align between this two loops to your liking):
I think you can create a shape key by creating the same number of planes of Vertex.
Yes, exactly.
Another way…
Add a cylinder. ( or use what you have ) Go to Edit mode.
Add loop cuts till they are about the same size, and select an area to make the part.
Use Inset on the selected part to form a frame…
( Now is the time you can duplicate the inset selection to use as the cover or glass?)
Move the selection down slightly ( same distance as the offset from above?)
Use S + Z + zero to flatten the screen surface…
It’s quite a way to solve it, but it did work. Thanks, fam. I appreciate the help.
