animate control points

Question

So how can I animate tentackle made form spline IK if control points for spline are non animatable property? :)

Answer 1 · 2021-02-25T23:00:45Z

Wayne Dixon replied February 25, 2021 11:00pm

Great question Ipyrka.

For that you can connect the spline points to some control bones using the Hook modifier.

Here's a quick explanation.

Create a control bone(s) and select it in Pose Mode. (you can only add 1 hook at a time)

Then shift select the curve and jump into edit mode (you may need to disable "Lock Object Modes" in the Edit menu to do this).
With the curve point selected press Ctrl H (add hook) and choose "To active Bone".

And that's it. That point will now be parented to the control bone with a Hook Modifier.

NB: In previous versions of Blender you could not have the Spline IK chain and the Control bone in the same armature, but in recent versions of Blender you can.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2 · 2021-02-26T08:21:18Z

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replied February 26, 2021 8:21am

Thanks Waylow for answer!

That's makes sense.

My friend gave me other solution - to use build in addon AnimALL, which can animate single verts.

Answer 3 · 2021-02-26T12:37:03Z

Wayne Dixon replied February 26, 2021 12:37pm

Hmm....that will mean you are not animating the armature.

The idea is to have all the animation data attached to the one object, the armature. Didn't you watch the first video haha.

I'm not sure if you can use the animation tools to adjust your animation with AnimAll. I believe it will be an animated shape key, correct? (it's been a long time since I used animall).

Shape keys travel in a straight line so you wouldn't be able to animate any nice arcs.