Simple Deform - Apply as a Shapekey not working

Support Basics & Interface
1

Hi. I want to upload an animation into sketch
fab. I noticed it is not possible to visualize actions made with modifiers. When converting the simple deform to a shape key, I can not see any animation connected to the shapekeys. I see action has been created but modifying the value will not act as my previous simple deform.

Please find the test file here.

220818_V1.blend (820.8 KB)

2

Hi Bruno,
you should have go to picture 50 and then at Simpledeform “Apply as Shapekey”.

220818_V1-FIX.blend (822.5 KB)

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3

That did the job, but the workflow is a bit weird. Shouldn’t it work regardless of the timeline position?

Thank you

4

Yes, but you set keyframes (1, 50, 100).
You can of course do the whole thing without keyframes.

5

It applies the shape based on how it is deformed at the time that you apply it.
As the deformer was only fully in effect at frame 50, that’s the frame to do it on.

You could have no keyframes at all. As long as the deformer is in effect, then it’s current state would be turned into the shape key.

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6

Thank you. Do you have a workflow for when the deformations used in the modifier tab have many keyframes?

What happens if you have two different values keyframes? Where will you stand when you apply the modifier?

Another thing: I have a simple deform with many keyframes. Is there any way to apply the deform to a keyframe shape key? Or will I need to do it manually?

Thank you

7

Think of a shape key as simply a way to store the positions of points that differ from their original modeled position.
When you want to create a new shape key based on the deformer, there are two options:

  • Apply as Shape Key
  • Save as Shape Key

The ‘Apply’ option will create the shape key, and then remove the deformer modifier.
The ‘Save’ option will create the shape key, and leave the deformer in place. So you can then go to your next frame, and save another shape key.

It might be worth taking a step back to see what you’re trying to achieve. I beleive that Sketchfab will allow you to import a file that has one or more actions. Maybe adding an armature might be better than using a deformer. You can have multiple frames in an action, and the animation from frame to frame will carry across to the Sketchfab export file.

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