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I'm trying to animate a map unfolding (inspired by this tutorial for a box unfolding).

I've subdivided a plane, then added bones to it.

I've added a Solidify Modifier to the plane, and defined three textures for the top, bottom, and edges.

When the paper folds up, I see clashes between the top and bottom textures. I don't want my paper to be infinitely thin, but I'd like it to fold up almost flat, like a map would.

enter image description here

My questions:

  1. What's the best way to avoid the clashes, but maintain some thickness?

  2. How would I go about unfolding in multiple directions, like this:

enter image description here

My map currently only unfolds in the x axis. I'd like to also fold it in the y-axis, but wouldn't this require multiple bones attached to the same faces? When I attempt to animate this, my surfaces stretch weirdly, and don't follow the rotation of my bones.

  1. Is there a more naturalistic way of achieving this, maybe with cloth?

Many thanks

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    $\begingroup$ What you see is z-fighting. That's depth buffer having precision issues. You can make the clipping range(near clip and far clip) narrower to avoid this for your viewport and/or the camera. You probably also need some more geometry for the bends to be 3d and not to go to a single point/line. They can be really small. $\endgroup$
    – Martynas Žiemys
    Commented Jun 13 at 22:24
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    $\begingroup$ Yeah i think the main thing is that there needs to be some actual geo at the "joint" of each fold so that when it's completely folded it still has some space between each layer. $\endgroup$
    – Jakemoyo
    Commented Jun 14 at 1:32
  • $\begingroup$ As Jakemoyo says you should bevel each fold so that there's a gap between each face $\endgroup$
    – moonboots
    Commented Jun 14 at 7:05
  • $\begingroup$ Thank you these comments are very helpful! Whoever voted to close, this question is based on outcome not method. If anyone has tips about multiple direction folds using more than one bone on the same face, that would be useful too. $\endgroup$
    – tomh
    Commented Jun 14 at 7:33

1 Answer 1

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As Jakemoyo says you should create a double edge at each fold, like this:

enter image description here

This way you make sure that the faces are not intersecting:

enter image description here

Folding into quarter makes it more complicated, parent bone 3 to parent 1 and bone 4 to 2:

enter image description here

You have 4 vertex group, each quad is assigned to a vertex group, example:

enter image description here

Result:

enter image description here

File:

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  • $\begingroup$ This is very helpful thank you. What’s the best way to fold into quarters using bones in the example you showed? $\endgroup$
    – tomh
    Commented Jun 14 at 7:35
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    $\begingroup$ I've edited, I hope it helps $\endgroup$
    – moonboots
    Commented Jun 14 at 7:56
  • $\begingroup$ It does - thanks! $\endgroup$
    – tomh
    Commented Jun 14 at 8:37
  • $\begingroup$ Hi moonboots - when I try to do this, I can't get the second fold to work. Can you tell me which faces should be assigned to bones 3 and 4 in your diagram? Bones 3 and 4 aren't pulling the faces correctly. Video example: vimeo.com/959405257 $\endgroup$
    – tomh
    Commented Jun 16 at 7:14
  • $\begingroup$ Bone parenting and vertext groups shown here: imgur.com/a/ezHtdS9 $\endgroup$
    – tomh
    Commented Jun 16 at 7:17

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