Contortionist

[bwcc]

I love using Contortionist and use it a lot - the 64 bit version works much better with bigger models. But, I usually use an effector path to deform the geometry which as far as I know makes it impossible to animate the curve path over time.

 

Does anyone have a method to animate the curve? The plug-in will use an imported path and I have tired to use morph targets to edit the curve of the path but it never seems to look quite right...

 

Really wish there was a tool in EIAS to draw a bezier curve that could be animated over time to use as a deformation path.
 

I guess as long as I am wishing, this should really be part of the deformation system.               

 

brian

[S. Houtzager]

Hey Brian,

 

I have played around with Contortionist a bit but I can't use it that often.  What sort of stuff do you use it for? 

 

Can you animate a null and then parent that null to the Wiremaker pluggin perhaps to create a curve?

[bwcc]

Since the 64 bit version came out, I use it for many things like building static models (then exporting / importing) and animating objects deforming to a curve. I do a lot of medical stuff, think of balloon catheter snaking through an artery. It works great, there is a time hit on rendering, but not as bad as it used to be. The problem is the deformation path is fixed. Sometimes I need to animate the object over the curve and have the curve change shape over time.

 

Contortionist uses an Effector animation path to deform the models - I can use Path2Line to generate a path (geometry) export, modify the curve export the path again and import the curves as morph targets - really cumbersome, and the transition between morph targets is limited.

 

I have the plug-in Wiremaker but have never used it and can't find any docs - does it do the same thanks as Path2Line? 

 

thanks,

brian

[S. Houtzager]

There are quite a few more options in Wiremaker and I have never seen it in the manual. Can make wires from lots of things. :)