Cineversity

Hey everybody,

I really hope, somebody can help me.

I’ve got a shoe upper, that I want to wrap around a last. The problem is, that I only have the final shoe. So what I am trying to do is, flattening/spreadening out the shoe upper, so I can reverse it and let it look like it wraps around.
It doesn’t need to be perfectly flat, because I let it fly in and then wrap it around the last.

I’ve tried the bend deformer, I’ve tried rigging it, but nothing is doing what I want.

Maybe one of you has an idea how I could do it, you are my last hope!

I’ve attached a few pics so you can maybe understand it :D

Thanks a lot!!!

Hi ag4medien,

Without having the file here, it is difficult to say what will work.
If you need an upload link, please let me know. (Amazon, Dropbox, Apple, Adobe and Google are the only one I use.)

Have you tried a Shrink Warp setup? (Always test things on a copy)

Cheers

P.S.: You might use the target shape and a smaller copy of the object (normal scale) to use a Xpresso function Ray Collision. (with an Iteration)

Thanks for your reply!

Under the following link you can find the file:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0o9i3dy1kh75zbz/Upper_v1.1.c4d?dl=0

“Have you tried a Shrink Warp setup?” - Yes, but my problem is, that I need it the other way around.

“Ray Collision” - No, I’ve never work with that, I assume thats too high for me.

Thanks for the file, ag4medien.

If I had to do it for production, I would retopologize the mesh with the Pen Tool and go from there. This new mesh would have be a lower dense mesh and easy to adjust.
https://www.cineversity.com/vidplaytut/polygon_pen_part_07

The Upper object “socken” is based on a few un-connected meshes, which creates the main problem to find anything fast. I went through a lot of options, but pretty much any had a problem.

The most promising was with a plugin “UV to Mesh” which doesn’t work anymore on R20, so I tried to get a nice UV established, to work in R19. Also, here the mixed objects (collar and seams) created the main problem, I was not able to relax each while keeping the positions.

I tried UV projection, Wrap-Deformer, Cage, and Spline Deformer, none were able to do what was needed. The Ray collision didn’t work either. I had hoped to project it to a flat (but bent) surface and go from there.
The Surface Deformer should work, but the mesh ‘flashed’ from time to time. See file: [updated, a higher mesh density removed the jumping/flashing]
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/77wDq1wCD6GZGFXf3RHNuRuVLqBo4Dvnp0LCGAxd8Hh
Not completely flat, but very close.

Somewhere in the back of my head, there is a piece of information that a plugin can roll it out, but I can’t find it on the web.

What I did was to use five Bend deformers (the sequence and restriction is the key here), and flatten it out as much as possible (well, I could have done more with four extra deformers).
I used then a Current State To Object command, to get a copy. This object was then rotated and scaled to be flat. With the Magnet tool, some of the edges were smoothed out.
After that, I used a Pose Morph, set to Points, and dragged the flat object in, switched all deformers off, and the result is in the file below:
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/XLnvGSxPW0SuSNGc48iTByTR5j97IoU1SPwEiCm6BmR

I hope that the fly in has enough speed/motion blur, so it feels OK; otherwise, you can put a little bit more work into it.

All the best

P.S.: I was interested in getting a flat model on a mathematical base.

The idea is to remodel the original shape based on edge selections, which are then turned into splines. These Splines can be used, to reshape your model. I assumed that four splines could do the job.
Have a look here:
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/eJGhDXCYSifboGYwFinFO8HmN73lOH9GOJkgAXGeseU

These splines are set to linear and no intermediate points. Which is equal to your model, polygon edges are linear and not bent.

In the Xpresso, I created an option to have the distance from one to the next points, without the influence of the P.Y value. This X and Z distance was then used to define the X distance for the flat model. Whereby P.Z. was always zero, in other words, a 2D model.

The Y value was then applied again, with the P.X previous plus distance equal P.X next. The resulting Spline was then centered (x) and combined with the Loft Object again.

This is just an example of how a flat object could be retrieved from a 3D. Since it is a fabric that stretches, the problems from a 3D shape to a 2D should be negligible, but that is an artist call of course.

So, how to get this animated, while keeping the art directing options widely open?
Here is an idea:
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/LwggM5uyvjORfaMgBIcwJs5lrz5SKzE5YLOSgBjI4hI
File 01 is for one spline set, file 11 is the complete set up and 12 is a animated demo of it.

Cheers

Oh man, you are amazing!

it works perfect!!! Thank you so, so much Dr. Sassi, that is so amazing!

You are the best…

Thanks!

You are very welcome, ag4medien, thanks for the nice feedback.

If you have any further question, please never hesitate to ask, I’m happy to look into it.

All the best

P.S.: I updated the file from post #3 , and the now tighter mesh prevented the jumpiness of the texture. Here is the screen capture with the trick to set it up, and made it finally work!
scene file and screen capture
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/YEUASLr9uZgBeFvBCOG5ouQjHDsPZpvyZrinoFSpQVR