Bézier splines: constrain tangent?

[A.v.K.]

Could be done with an XPresso/COFFEE setup. If I find the time today, I can send you a scene that does this.

[brammelo]

Hi Arndt,

What you're saying is that there is no built-in way for doing this. A pitty, if you ask me. COFFEE would be most welcome :)

Cheers,
BaRa

[A.v.K.]

Hi BaRa,
you can use the Structure Manager to enter individual tangent length/directions, but you cannot enter prcise angles there.

[brammelo]

Yep, or you can simply doubleclick the vertex with the move tool, which gives you a dialog box with the same data. Unfortunetaly, this isn't the same as a SHIFT-constrain option :). Would be nice to have it in a future version though...

Cheers,
BaRa

[AdamT]

It would also be great if we could multiselect bezier handle points.

[danb]

I saw this post and thought OOoohh, :drool: the things i could do if i could constrain bezier handles to other points,face, or objects.

[Darter]

I'd also like to be able to individually change tangent lengths without tangent direction being affected. I'm constantly having to set Equal Tangent Direction after Shift-dragging bezier handles. I think that Photoshop is much better in this regard.

[A.v.K.]

I played around a little bit with COFFEE and XPresso. It was harder than I first thought, but it seems to work as it should.
Download the scene here:
www.vreel-3d.de/WIP/XP_Tangenten.c4d.zip

Use the sliders to change the rotation of the tangent in the selected spline point. Use the "do it" checkbox to use those setting to rotate the tangent. The basic orientation (all sliders set to 0°) is the positive x axis.

The length of the tangets can also be changed with another set of sliders. The current/old length can be read from two value fields. Again using the checkbox next to the length sliders changes the tangents.
Let me know if this works for you.

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