Cineversity

I put a head on top of a cylinder to make a goofy looking worm and want him to move along a spline. Can this be done with a spline wrap, or am I better to rig it?

Hi Andy.Man,

Certainly an Artist question first, how should your “worm” move? What is its story? (Story can invent a very unique movement, is its movement based on history, or a dream to be something else. Perhaps only tiny amounts of all of that.)
I’m not a expert in worms of course, but some retract and push parts to move, some bend.
I googled it and here is an answer to the technical part: The bristles, paired in groups on each segment, can be moved in and out to grip the ground or the walls of a burrow. Worms travel through underground tunnels or move on the soil surface by using their bristles as anchors, and pushing themselves forward or backward using strong stretching and contracting muscles.
In “Toons” I saw it more often that they move based on elevating a part and get so moving. Not so often, I guess, that they move like a snake.

Reference is key, from natural recourses or from a story/idea about it. Either way, if none of this is know, it is difficult to answer.

The Spline Wrap seems a more suitable idea for a snake movement, if used by itself. The “stretching and contracting” (worms do that) needs to be in sync with the movement applied to it. I would think, again—just a guess—that he contracted part has the most anchors and is kind of larger in diameter, which would lead to more pressure, based on size or weight. This helps the little “anchors” to work in that part more effectively. Hence, there I would think is the slowest (if at all) movement.

The attached file is a sketch, you certainly have a different idea about the “worm-pacing”. ;o)

What I did:

• Made a capsule editable, (after I changed the rotational segments to 16)
• Selected some point loops (m-middle, l-left, r-right—names of the point selections
• A PLA (Point Level Animation) for a 90 frame cycle, NO: PSR animation or key-frames for such!
• Turned this animation into a Animation Clip (see image) This allows for repetition and scale of the time, etc.
• I used the Spline Wrap then to move the work, and that in a rhythm (see F-Curve)—not precisely as the worm might move in wet soil, etc.
• To show-case the stretching and contraction of the work, I applied the texture, certainly not for aesthetically considerations ;o)

On the other hand, if the worm has some “acting” to do, the consideration to rig it perhaps with joints might be a good idea as well. But for simple movements, I would prefer a Spline based movement.

My best wishes

Hi Doc,

Lots of questions, I’ll do my best to give context. What I’ve got is a worm with a big cartoonish head that is the happy mascot for a composting facility. His “torso” is upright, the rest of his body is in a W shape. He moves by expanding and scrunching up, which I know is more like a caterpillar than a worm, but that’s what I’m going for. I attached the file and a concept drawing. Thank you!

Thanks Andy.Man.

You’re welcome.

I have not found any attachments in your post. If the image was too large, normally you get an alert why it is not included.

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Sounds already different to “just a worm movement”. :o) All in all, plant some joints in the character and go from there.

If the movements are very “cyclically” you might have a look into the option of Pose-Morph, to get a group of Joints animated at once.

Typically a human figure starts out in the T pose, which would be for the worm just a pencil like shape. But I believe it is maybe something more between both extremes. pencil vs “w-shape” to allow for a good rigging and a nice “deforming” of it.

You’re question about the Spline movement lead normally to the idea that the movement is rather repetitive and you might get quickly an result. If you like to work on expressions and something that is worthwhile watching, movements along a spline look to me always like zombie-movement. In other words, make certain what you like to have expressed with this movement. Perhaps create even a small story board to get some key expressions.

I’m not certain in this case if the “Character” builder or even the “CMotion” is useful here. But I could see a good use for the “Muscle” system here.

Joints can be used with a Spline IK Tag, and that might be something to look into.

My understanding of building a rig is, that the handling of such allows the Animator an easy an stress free “animation/acting” of the object. So, the less one has to think about the technical aspect of the work, after the rig is done, the better the chances that a good rig supports the final quality of the rig itself.

You might browse through the many tutorials here and find out what fits to your idea. If that figure is a representation for what the company stands for, you might need to dive deep into all of it. Character animation, is after all a multi-task adventure. Directing, Actors coach, technical director (rig), animator (or actor :o), editor, DOP, and post and sound. Each step will support the result (or limit) it. I hope you have tons of input from your client, so the result comes close to their idea and helps you to develop the best possible. Certainly a nice challenge.

My best wishes.

Thanks Doc, I’ll tackle Pose-Morph and the mentioned techniques. Things have changed since 2006.

You’re welcome, Andy.Man.

Speaking of change, you might check the Character>Conversions>Spline to Joints. As well the Spline IK tag. In the right mix you can set up something very quickly. Just a thought.

Perhaps the set up of some Nulls into the MoGraph tracer, to get a spline, and use this as Spline Wrap base, might be worth to be explored. The Nulls could have Child-Nulls, to create with another MoGraph Tracer a Rail Spline.

All the best