Animate a Ribbon: Making it Unfold?

[ThePriest]

When in doubt. PLA

[Per-Anders]

Just use a bend deformer to do this, animate it's position.

[spirozero]

When in doubt. PLA

What's PLA?

I'll test out the bend deformer.

[Per-Anders]

PLA = Point Level Animation. I'd not recommend that for this, PLA interpolates in a linear fashion and you're looking for a rotational effect, you'd have to pretty much hand animate every frame.

[ThePriest]

"Be the cloth"

I would hang it on a 90degree angle, pin it at the top to something temporary.
Use a certain amount of stiffness, few poly's, play with advanced cloth features,
different gravity.

Then once you have a nice result, you could bake to PLA.

*typo's

[spirozero]

OK, I don't think the Bend Deformer is going to do it for me. Towards the end it looks good, but at the beginning and in the middle it's all messed up - the ribbon doesn't stay rolled up inside itself. Also, I was hoping to have some space in between the ribbon when it's completely rolled up. That's what I'm trying to show in the first image below with the red twirl in the middle ... leaving space in between the ribbon.

http://www.judderbar.com/cgtalk/ribbon02.jpg

So now I'm wondering ... would I have to animate this with bones??? Is this even possible?

Thanks.

[Per-Anders]

The bend deformer will work just fine, the problem is that you have too short a bend deformer and that you have it at 90 degrees to the ribbon, angle it against the ribbon and you will get a perfect curl.

[spirozero]

"Be the cloth"

I would hang it on a 90degree angle, pin it at the to something temporary.
Use a certain amount of stiffness, few poly's, play with advanced cloth features,
different gravity.

Then once you have a nice result, you could bale to PLA.


That's an interesting idea. I assume "bale" is supposed to be "bake"?

I'm done here at the studio. Once I'm back home I'll revisit this thread. Thanks everyone.

[spirozero]

The bend deformer will work just fine, the problem is that you have too short a bend deformer and that you have it at 90 degrees to the ribbon, angle it against the ribbon and you will get a perfect curl.

I'll try this when I get home. Thanks for the tip Per.

[vid2k2]

So now I'm wondering ... would I have to animate this with bones??? Is this even possible?



That's what I was thinking, bones. The sample file of the curling scorpian tail came
to mind. I also thought that an animated loft using a flat helix spline would work, but,
it doesn't leave the flat part of the ribbon, even in reverse.

[Renderwise]

Per Anders method is perfect. Made some quickies
The movie: http://www.renderwise.com/unfold.mov
The c4d file: http://www.renderwise.com/unfold.c4d

Cheers!

[Rantin Al]

Here's one to play with using MoGraph Spline Wrap.
The Offset is the control parameter. Keyframed from 0% > 100%.

It might(?) be possible to either tweak the Helix or wrap parameters to anchor the free end.

The alternative is to animate the unrolling coil itself.

HTH.
Cheers, Alan.

[vid2k2]

Very nice. Thanks.

[Rantin Al]

Another MoGraph one with the position of the Helix keyed to give the proper unroll.
The XPresso gives the Helix length. Use this value as the distance between the position keys.

Cheers, Alan.

[spirozero]

Wow. Great examples! And thanks for sharing your C4D files. Very helpful.

Now I'll be spending the rest of the day creating my own ribbon animation. :thumbsup:

[Rantin Al]

The MoGraph example even works with a Cube Primitive. Saves mucking with extrudes.:)

Have fun, Alan.

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.