I’m having a problem with path conform, in which its conforming the verts to the path, not the object. I understand thats what it is intended to do, but i’m looking more for conforming the whole “object” to the spline.
I'm attached a file with a generic setup to emulate my problem. I'm building a bridge, and the top segments of the bridge are more detailed then the bottom segments. * attachment
Because the top part of the bridge is more detailed, those elements more accurately define a path, while the bottom segments do not. The result is the top segments coming out of the mesh. see pic below *attachment
I have tried using a normalized spline, and this stops the top segments from coming out of the mesh, but results in the bottom part becoming more squashed, thus destroying my texture. It seems like a no win solution.
Does anyone have any suggestions, or work arounds that i might incorporate?
Thanks
You could increase the resolution of your (bottom) mesh, then it would distort ‘correctly’, except that you’ll have a denser mesh (I’m presuming you want a low-res mesh), plus it will be bent while perhaps you want to keep those straight?
I don’t think there’s a particularly ‘easy’ way to push the top bits back inward across the surface – which I think is what you’d want – might be somewhat scriptable by…
- identifying the top bits as separate elements
- identifying a vector between those elements and the spline used to distort (presumably, with any luck, somewhere in the middle of your bridge’s surface) – there’s functions to detect the nearest point on a spline given a 3D point in the scene, that can be used to create the vector
- moving the elements ‘inward’ along that vector (presumably on only 2 axes)
like rich said, i don’t think there’s a particularly good solution using this method to avoid the problems you cited. You could try separating the top blocks as two complete rows and then path deforming the main shape. Then select the two top edges and extract two splines for the rows of top stones to path deform along. It might not be any better, but it would give you more control on the scaling of the inside (shorter) curve. Remember if you want the top blocks to be the same size on the short inside curve and the longer outside curve you might want to have less to avoid the pinch at corners. In that respect it might be better to use the spacing tool on a single block to position the pieces along each edge of the bridge.
But the mesh resolution is the main problem, as there is just not enough info to bend the geometry around.
You could also decrease the interpolation of your spline to be jaggady like a wall built out of those sections is. Might work…
thanks guys, i was afraid that would have to be my solution…I’m going to do some tests with some more polys, and see where it gets me.
Thanks
Thanks for the thoughts dave, i did try that method, but then at the corners of sharper turns, the mesh was pinching together. But other than that the top parts were positioned correctly. So it kind of a give and take
You can SkinWrap your Bridgemodel to a plane with the exact length/width and subdivision and pathdeform that plane. Then the Top details should stick where they are placed.
Just bussy here, i can give you an example soon.
Here i got the setup for you. The Script i used to easy skin an object to any deformer mesh was included in “Advanced Cloth Workshop by Paul Hormis” called “TiM-Scripts” collection, i also included that .ms file.
interesting concept. Thanks ill give that a try