1
$\begingroup$

I have some sleepless nights because of this and now I really have to ask you this =) I’m working with Blender 2.80 Beta and maybe it’s also a slight Blender bug as I have seen others achieving this the way I wanted to achieve this (with the first mentioned solution of mine).

The idea: Similar to creating this “alien worm” based on this gorgeous showcase (at 3:27 - 3:39): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hGSDD9-Tkc

I used a long cylinder mesh with quite enough subdivision, (location: 0,0,0), rotated it to be the same direction as my path curves start and applied rotation/scale/etc (also to the spline itself), set the origins to the front of my worm mesh and the origin of the path curve to where the start is, parented the mesh to the spline and added a follow-path constraint (this part is all working and it’s following the path exactly), then I added the Curve modifier to the cylinder but this one offsets the mesh to somewhere else and it also doesn’t seem to follow the path in it’s offset location (I mean I could live with an offset). When having a circular path, it doesn’t go in a circle, it moves around in an “8”. The body bends sometimes but this bending isn’t looking at all as it should^^ I tried using a short cylinder mesh and add an array modifier to it, but have the same exact problem. tried other modifiers which all don't give the result i need.

Do I really have to rig it or is there an error in what I'm doing?

Here's an image (as requested, thank you!) of the project: FollowPathAndBendAlongIt

Thanks everyone for reading :)

All the best, Oli

edit: I had a subsurf modifier in place (above the curve modifier), then I applied it and it's the exact same thing happening. the first image looks as if everything's going to work fine, it also bends along the curve, but as soon as i press play, the mesh goes up in the air and deforms quite strangely. I uploaded the simple project: dropbox.com/s/ypwgabfig436krc/SpaceWorm.zip?dl=0 Thanks a lot!!

What is strange is that for following the path I parent it to the curve with option "follow path" and then to be able to add the follow path constraint I have to first un-parent it again and then add the constraint. Otherwise it never follows the path. maybe it's got to do something with this, not sure

Even though the offset and bending of the object behave not correct,it's a little bit better in blender 2.79 but also not as expected..

EDIT 2: First "video" shows without parenting, but with follow path constraint enter image description here Second "video" shows with parenting (follow path) and w/o constraint: enter image description here Last one representing the total fail when using a more complex path, on the right side you can see the curves settings, went over quite everything, nothing works: enter image description here

$\endgroup$
1
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Do you use Subsurf modifier for the subdivisions? And if yes is it before the Curve modifier in stack? $\endgroup$
    – Mr Zak
    Dec 2, 2018 at 19:38

1 Answer 1

1
$\begingroup$

I don't know if this will work for what you finally want, but for what you described, I would simply use the curve modifier and then animate moving the object along the X axis. Here's what I did

  • add the cylinder, subdivide it, rotate it, apply rotation and move the origin, as you did.
  • add a Bezier curve.
  • in Edit mode, position the Bezier curve to create the path I wanted
  • add the curve modifier to the cylinder using X as the deformation Axis.

This will move the cylinder to the starting point of the Bezier curve. Key frame it here.

Move the time to whatever is appropriate, move the cylinder along the x axis, and keyframe.

$\endgroup$
3
  • $\begingroup$ i tried adding the curve modifier first, but leads to the same. I attached gifs now to show how it looks. TY!! $\endgroup$
    – oliiix
    Dec 2, 2018 at 22:53
  • $\begingroup$ also note: the path it should follow is gonna be more complex than only a circle :) $\endgroup$
    – oliiix
    Dec 2, 2018 at 23:03
  • $\begingroup$ I see!!! I finally got it working I believe, just without the follow-path constraint and keyframing! I guess I was to tired yesterday :D Thank you Marty it works like a charm now :D I'm so happy, thank you all!! $\endgroup$
    – oliiix
    Dec 3, 2018 at 9:59

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .