Shift Spline Transform
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Description
Allows the user to deform an object using one or more splines defined by nulls or other objects.
Installation
Open the Plugins panel, and select 'Add Plugins'. Browse to the directory in which the plugin resides and select it. The plugin will appear in the Object properties>Deform>Displacement plugins list.
Usage
Select your object, and add the plugin to it in the Displacement plugins. Open its panel. This panel lists each spline affecting this mesh, as you can set up multiple splines in this one plugin. Each one has a parent object to which it applies a Custom Plugin to display the spline.
Click Add to add a new spline. The following panel pops up:
This panel allows you to restrict the spline's influence to a weighted area. The Anchor point count specifies the number of control points in the spline. Distance sets how long the spline is. Attach Item specifies the parent of the spline control points, or you can leave it blank for the panel to make a new parent. Press Okay when finished. The next panel pops up.
This is the panel which is displayed if you double-click a Spline in the first panel, or select a spline and press Property in the first panel. On the first tab it lists the 'Anchor Points', to which you can add more, or select and delete one or more points. Anchor points need to be Rested like bones to work correctly, the Rest Position resets the points to this position. The Transform tab looks like this:
If you haven't set a weight map, or would like to change it, you can do that here. You can also Set Rest Position of the spline once you've adjust the points to fit your mesh. Transform quality determines how accurate the deformation is.
The Fix Length allows you to stop the mesh stretching to match the spline if you move the points apart. You can also keyframe the mesh's position along the spline, to make for example a snake sliding along a trail or something like that. If you key the Scale attribute, the mesh can be stretched and shrunk along the spline as you like.
You can keyframe the control points position, rotation and scale to deform the spline. Clicking on the displayed spline will select the parent object of that particular spline, not the control points, so it's a good idea to add another Custom Item shape to the control points to make them easier to select.
Tips
Set Subdivision order to Last for this plugin to work with Subdivision objects.
