LucentDreams
10-04-2002, 01:52 AM
Using the spline deformer is acutally pretty easy once you know how it works, but the sttings in the AM can seem very odd as this doesn function quite differently from all the deformers we already know.
First thing we need is something to deform. I was making a funky sorta landscape so I started with a plan which I made 125x125 so that there would be too many sharp or flat surfaces, to be easier on the system I woul recommend your first experiment be with something around 50x50 as you want to see how much control the spline deformer really has, and yet still want your system to run :)
Next we creat our spline deformer and place as a child of our plane. This is the same way that all deformers are used. Not doing too much right now though is it. Thats because being a spline deformer, it needs some splines.
We'll create two splines, what I did is create one bezier spline, shaped it the way I desired, and then copied it and tweaked the second from there, just to try and make sure the splines had the same number of points, this isn't neccessary, they can each have their own number of points, but this helps to keep track of things and predict the deformations a little better.
Now we have our splines, lets name the first one initial and the second one modify. We don't need to do this with the new smartpointers, but this is to help you understand how these splines work together.
Now for the fun part, select the spline deformer in the OM, it should update the AM to show the spline deformer, make sure the object tab in the AM is open showing the object parameters of the spline deformer. Now click and drag the initial spline from the OM and drag it into the 'original spline' box of the AM spline deformer parameters. Next dot he same with the modify spline but drop it into the modifying spline box.
Now you should see some sort of result, probably pretty smooth. Lets add some shape to it, sculpt it if you will. Look down to the shape setting in the AM, there should be a small graph to the right of it, totally empty. LEts change that, simply click anywhere inside the graph and a little orange point should be visible just as if it were a spline. click again and another orange point should be on the left side and a black point should join the two. now simply by moving these two points up and down oyu can control the way cuve of the polys ats they deform towards the splines. click anywhere in the graph to add even more points. pretty neat, it gets better.
If you feel that isn't enough control click on the arrow nect to the graph, no under the graph you will see settings for the X and Y coordintates to be more accurate, and tension, which works almost like the new weightin system for hypernurbs, simply lower the tension to achieve a smooth b-spline. I ususally uses less than 50 as it creates a much smoother surface, but you might want a rougher surface say for a cliff or something.
I skipped a few settings, Radius, is basically the radius of influence the spline has over the surface. Use length uses the full length of each spline usually maing the results more extreme sometimes less smooth, and ful polygons is a little bit unsure, I think it trys to apply a deformation toards one spline or another of each polygon rather than each point of the surface, creating flatter more jagged surfaces, but less distorted polygons (less, but still many stretched polygons of course) and b-spline approximation only applies when you are using b-splines for your deformation.
It basically controls how accurate the deformation from the b-splines is, the highger the setting the more accurate and typically less bumby the mesh.
Hope this all helps you guys and you should easily be able to see its uses for making landscapes, and hopefully see its uses elsewhere too, this is an amazing powerful tool.
http://www.cgi.third-era.com/~kaiskai/r8tips/splinedeformer.jpg
First thing we need is something to deform. I was making a funky sorta landscape so I started with a plan which I made 125x125 so that there would be too many sharp or flat surfaces, to be easier on the system I woul recommend your first experiment be with something around 50x50 as you want to see how much control the spline deformer really has, and yet still want your system to run :)
Next we creat our spline deformer and place as a child of our plane. This is the same way that all deformers are used. Not doing too much right now though is it. Thats because being a spline deformer, it needs some splines.
We'll create two splines, what I did is create one bezier spline, shaped it the way I desired, and then copied it and tweaked the second from there, just to try and make sure the splines had the same number of points, this isn't neccessary, they can each have their own number of points, but this helps to keep track of things and predict the deformations a little better.
Now we have our splines, lets name the first one initial and the second one modify. We don't need to do this with the new smartpointers, but this is to help you understand how these splines work together.
Now for the fun part, select the spline deformer in the OM, it should update the AM to show the spline deformer, make sure the object tab in the AM is open showing the object parameters of the spline deformer. Now click and drag the initial spline from the OM and drag it into the 'original spline' box of the AM spline deformer parameters. Next dot he same with the modify spline but drop it into the modifying spline box.
Now you should see some sort of result, probably pretty smooth. Lets add some shape to it, sculpt it if you will. Look down to the shape setting in the AM, there should be a small graph to the right of it, totally empty. LEts change that, simply click anywhere inside the graph and a little orange point should be visible just as if it were a spline. click again and another orange point should be on the left side and a black point should join the two. now simply by moving these two points up and down oyu can control the way cuve of the polys ats they deform towards the splines. click anywhere in the graph to add even more points. pretty neat, it gets better.
If you feel that isn't enough control click on the arrow nect to the graph, no under the graph you will see settings for the X and Y coordintates to be more accurate, and tension, which works almost like the new weightin system for hypernurbs, simply lower the tension to achieve a smooth b-spline. I ususally uses less than 50 as it creates a much smoother surface, but you might want a rougher surface say for a cliff or something.
I skipped a few settings, Radius, is basically the radius of influence the spline has over the surface. Use length uses the full length of each spline usually maing the results more extreme sometimes less smooth, and ful polygons is a little bit unsure, I think it trys to apply a deformation toards one spline or another of each polygon rather than each point of the surface, creating flatter more jagged surfaces, but less distorted polygons (less, but still many stretched polygons of course) and b-spline approximation only applies when you are using b-splines for your deformation.
It basically controls how accurate the deformation from the b-splines is, the highger the setting the more accurate and typically less bumby the mesh.
Hope this all helps you guys and you should easily be able to see its uses for making landscapes, and hopefully see its uses elsewhere too, this is an amazing powerful tool.
http://www.cgi.third-era.com/~kaiskai/r8tips/splinedeformer.jpg