Is there a good (fluid) way to rig a straight line?

Retired Products Animate General Discussion
1

I would like to create a more fluid movement with a characters arms, legs and tail. Currently I can cut apart an arm into segments like an upper arm, lower arm, and a hand and create a rig from there. However it’s a very rigid bone system that only moves at the pivot points.

Is there a rig (or something else) that I could use to animate something like a tail where I can draw a curly line and have the tail twist however I pull it?

Something similar to how the characters arms in Adventure Time become all noodly / wavey when they get really long, instead of feeling chopped up into joints.

The only idea I have right now is to cut the tail into about 100 segments, but that seems overly complicated.

If anyone has any ideas or suggestions, I’d love to know! :slight_smile:

Thanks in advance!
-mike

2

Oh and I’m using Animate 3, if that makes a difference.

3

Curve deform in harmony would do exactly what you want but because you’re using Animate 3 you’d need to animate it frame by frame to get the effect you’re after. I’m pretty sure that’s how Adventure Time does it, frame by frame.

4

Indeed, Curve Deformers in Harmony are made for precisely that purpose. :slight_smile: