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View Full Version : Modifiers : Bend Modifier Problems

Popsicle_g
05-02-2003, 08:18 AM
Software Info: 3DS Max 4.3 Educational version (highschool student)

Okay, this is my first post to this amazing community that I have recently discovered. I'm making an animation with a couple of bread/toast characters that I've made (to help you visualize the problem). I've decided to go with the bend modifier to animate them, as I want simple, cartoony movement and I'm limited for time. My problem lies here:

I have a one bend modifier applied to one piece of toast and both of his eyes (they are all under the same modifier so as to get the eyes to move with the bread, because I couldn't figure out a good way to attach them to a vertex) . I am using a LookAt constraint to change the direction he is looking.

My problem is that when I bend him in my animation, the pivot points on the eyeballs stay put, and this is of course perfectly normal, but I didn't expect it, being the noob that I am.

I know how the bend works and that the Toast's XYZ coords aren't actually moving.

I end up with eyeballs that rotate outside of the head and around a pivot that stays on the ground when I bend the head up. Not pretty. I really would like to continue using the lookat constraint, because it will be a lot more efficient and more accurate than if I just animated an eyeball texture. I played around for a minute with wiring, but that didn't seem to help.

Much appreciated. :wavey:

P.S. If I can pull this animation off, I'll have to post it sometime, its turning out well.
Popsicle_g
05-03-2003, 09:00 AM
Here is a picture of the toast when hes standing up....

http://www.myipool.com/~lthordarson/garretts/images/toast6.jpg
secretasianman
05-03-2003, 12:02 PM
did you try linking, or grouping?

umm bend?
ok, but did you try an ffd? that might be worth a try.
Popsicle_g
05-03-2003, 07:20 PM
They are linked. I did try FFD, just to humour myself. Bend and FFD only deform the object, they don't move it. It affects the object only, not the pivot point. What I need to be able to do is affect the eyeball's pivot point with the bend as well.
I could always move the pivot point, but there are more than one instances in the scene that I would like to rotate the eyeballs. Pivot points aren't animatable.

Thanks though.
Bobo
05-03-2003, 09:35 PM
A possible solution:

*Select the Eyeball object
*Go to Motion tab
*Expand the controller tracks, select the Position track
*Click the Assign Controller icon, pick Attachment
*Pick the Toast as the object to attach to - the eye will fall to a default position
*Then use the Set Position button, click and hold the mouse and move around the surface of the Toast to define the actual position.

Now if you animate the Bend modifier, the eye will move with the surface and always stay where expected.

Note that the position is based on a specified face and coordinates on this face. As long as the topology (number of faces) does not change, the eye will stick to this point.

Also note that Attachment is animatable, so the eye could even move around the surface over time (but you probably don't need this for your scene).

Since the Attachment is a Position constraint, you can still use the LookAt constraint without problems.

It is not a good idea to apply the bend to the eyes when using the Attachment constraint. Bend just the Toast.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Bobo
Popsicle_g
05-04-2003, 03:26 AM
Wow, thanks a lot, I'll try that and post how well it works out. Thanks!
Popsicle_g
05-04-2003, 10:56 AM
Bobo, thanks a million, awsome. It worked perfectly, though it took a while to find the faces due to the beveled crust. :applause:

I hate it when im going full steam and then I run into a problem like this. Thanks again!:thumbsup:
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