Animating an object through multiple extrusions

#1

Hi and thanks for looking,

I want to model a letter ‘B’ for a logo project that I’m working on but am not sure if my approach is the right way to go, so to speak…

I would like the letter ‘B’ to start with a cube, and then animate as follows (so that it looks as if it was growing):

  1. Extrude the top face up with 4 divisions… [ . -> l ] (and get a tall cube with five face rings)
  2. Then extrude side faces 1, 3, and 5 to the side… [l -> E]
  3. Divide the face of the middle side extrusion
  4. Make two bridges to connect side extrusions 1 and 5 to the split face (made in step 3). [E -> B]

Is this possible? I have found it awfully tricky; e.g. once I do step 2, the side extrusions show up as soon as the cube animates up in step 1…

Is there a way to do this?
What is a common approach to growing things for expanding geometry?
How would you approach growing a letter ‘B’

Thank you for any help, Tim

#2

Hi, if you are using Maya, I don’t know if this will work but try working backwards. Start at the end of your time line and place your ‘T’ in its correct state in the position you need. Rest your pivot point to the Base. Set a key. Move to the beginning of your time line, put it into vertex mode. In your front view, drag a window over all the vertices in the top row. Turn on your soft selection and adjust the selection envelope so that it leaves the bottom row unaffected. Now with your move tool, move the top row to meet the bottom or you can mover eachieve edge loops individually. Set a key. Scrub your time line and see what happens. You can now put more set keys at places in between so the arms open quicker or droop a bit, but as long as you have a key at the end with your final desired position and one at the beginning with your initial state, what you do in between technically does not matter as it will end up correct.

For the ‘B’ you could use a ‘latice modifier’ but now I think of it, you could use that for your ‘T’ as well.

Hope this helps

#3

Hi, if you are using Maya, I don’t know if this will work but try working backwards. Start at the end of your time line and place your ‘T’ in its correct state in the position you need. Reset your pivot point to the Base. Set a key. Move to the beginning of your time line, put it into vertex mode. In your front view, drag a window over all the vertices in the top row. Turn on your soft selection and adjust the selection envelope so that it leaves the bottom row unaffected. Now with your move tool, move the top row to meet the bottom or you can mover eachieve edge loops individually. Set a key. Scrub your time line and see what happens. You can now put more set keys at places in between so the arms open quicker or droop a bit, but as long as you have a key at the end with your final desired position and one at the beginning with your initial state, what you do in between technically does not matter as it will end up correct.

For the ‘B’ you could use a ‘latice modifier’ but now I think of it, you could use that for your ‘T’ as well.

Hope this helps