Flow Path Object / Deform Along Curve

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Hi,
I would be very happy if there are any resources on this. … Have been looking on odforce and here for a while. I am looking for a way to attach an object on a curve, then animate it along that curve and also get it deform as it flows. Just like the Maya tool:
Animate->Motion Path->Flow Path Object

(see the image please)

I tried various techniques, latices etc. But no success. It is supposed to be easy Just wanted to be sure if I am not missing a simple solution…

Maybe wireDeform and wire capture?

Any ideas? Thanks.

Attachments:
screen50.jpg (41.8 KB)

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Wow ?! Nobody has ever tried to do this? Really?
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i bet you can find it in the forums, i've seen curve deformer either here or at odforce
Tomas Slancik
FX Supervisor
Method Studios, NY
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Well,
I have seen it as well. It is a great example. but not very straight forward. I tried to edit it once, but got lost
And it does not center the object on the centroid. I think that was the problem. It deforms it along the curve as: the tail of the object is aligned at the very beginning of the curve and at the final stage the head of the object is aligned at the end of the curve.

When I tried to fix this, I got totally lost in the VEX stages.

Here is the original topic:
http://forums.odforce.net/index.php?/topic/10739-follow-curve-dynamically/page__hl__path%20deformer__fromsearch__1 [forums.odforce.net]

and the file is attached.

If there is no alternative to it, I will go back into digging… Just wanted to check.

Thanks.

Attachments:
Path_deformer.hip (416.6 KB)

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check this 8)
I create this example within few minutes so its not perfect, but It works and you can create digital assets with few changes, so I hope that it will be helpful

Attachments:
curve_deform.hipnc (124.5 KB)

https://vimeo.com/user3251535 [vimeo.com]
https://twitter.com/milansuk [twitter.com]
https://github.com/milansuk [github.com]
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Strange…
I was not able to load your file. It crashes my houdini as soon as I try to load it. ?!
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Hey Milan
I think this is a H11 file… is it possible to make it H10 compatible.

Thanks.
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Ok. Ok. It is fine. I loaded it in H11, it works.

However I am trying to get my object move along the curve as well. But your deformation technique is great.

Thanks.
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Any ideas?
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Something like this?

(About 5 minutes in…)
http://vimeo.com/8378129 [vimeo.com]

I haven't released this yet because it's not finished. It is created with the creep sop. Basically you sweep a line up a curve and use creep to deform your geometry along that surface. You can do some math to figure out how to center your object and determine the settings for the creep operator so the geometry does not appear stretched out.
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Aah!! Awesome! The arrow!
Exactly what I am looking for. Any clues to help me construct it?

Thanks.

EDIT: Ah, You already gave some clues Was exited about the video… did not read the rest of your post. I will try it. But would be glad if you would like to share a portion of it.

Thanks.
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It worked. Thanks for the idea. The creep part is a bit manual. In terms of figuring out the length of the sweeped geo and then the propotions to fit the actual geometry on the sweeped surface. The mesh that drives the creep is 2D at the end right? it is just a nurbs surface generated from the line sweep?

Thanks.
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Yes, you are driving the mesh with a nurbs surface.

The length, width, and depth can be figured out exactly with the right formulas, taking the bounding box of your source geo into account. I don't have my file with me at the moment, but I'll try to post it tonight. If you know the formulas, there's no need to guess.
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Here's my file.

This is will flag some OTL warnings, but it appears to still work. Keep in mind this is not finished and needs a lot more work, but it should be a good start for you to work with.

Attachments:
PathDeformer_01.hipnc (114.6 KB)

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Thanks alot! Works great!
Cheers!
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this made me recall some deform scene.potentiality of deforming ocean surface

Attachments:
pathdeformer_02.hipnc (180.6 KB)

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Hey Guys see if you can find this useful

Attachments:
vfxblend_path_deformer.hda (11.7 KB)

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Tried out this asset … tried it on a tube … seems to squash my tube a bit in x or z when deforming the y axis.
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