Spline Animation into Morph Tag?

[Swizl]

* Thank you for providing the details of the topdown / X-section plan of the frame.
* I plan to investigate the “morphing” from flat plane to flexed (and vice versa) using my original concept of bend modifiers tomorrow CET.

* It may be (or may not be ) possible to produce an animation which:
1 does not produce distortions
2 can be copied / pasted to related frames of different dimensions with minimal effort

* I expect that it is possible, but there may be unknown limits to my infallibility

Tomorrow is another day.
Servus to Scarlett O´Hara from Vienna

I do declare (said with a Southern drawl), thanks for trying to help figure this out! I may even try out using the bend deform (x2 mirrored) to see if I can match my original vector shape. If we had some type of falloff parameter, that would be helpful too. That way the strength and placement of the bend could be fine tuned.

 

[frank beckmann]

I´d use your illustration as a blueprint. But I´m doubtful about the last step if there´s enough room to the left when the sheet is plain.

Cheers
Frank

 

[Swizl]

I´d use your illustration as a blueprint. But I´m doubtful about the last step if there´s enough room to the left when the sheet is plain.

Cheers
Frank

I see what you are saying. I probably adjusted it after measuring it originally and forgot to recheck it. So it does look like it is slightly longer than it should be. Will double check it to make sure it's 6" wide.

Edit:
CADtools says it's pretty close to 6" wide. Was I not understanding what you meant maybe? Thanks.

 

[frank beckmann]

Depending on the bow I find really little room for the sheet to go - but I could be wrong. Just by eyeball.

 

[Swizl]

Depending on the bow I find really little room for the sheet to go - but I could be wrong. Just by eyeball.
View attachment 34795

Somehow it does look off. We use a mix of Inches and Millimeters for measurement. It's possible they told me 6 inches when they meant 150mm. Some people round measurements here like they are interchangeable. The gap right now when it's bent in your screenshot is roughly 1/16" (1.58mm). Something I can check on.

 

[frank beckmann]

If anyone will notice....


Cheers
Frank

 

[Helmut]

* Well, as I assumed the prime problem / tricky bit is splicing the contiguous cages of the bendy modifers. Primarily, the reverse bend of the lateral strip which sits in the retaining lip of the backing frame is cause for major frustration. There is no real problem where the dead ends of the bends meet in the centre along the Y-axis.
* Playing with the angles of the primary symmetric bends results in a flutter of the vertical edges. Some fine tuning is needed here to show a natural damping of the oscillations. Of course, panels will dampen differently, depending on size, thickness and polymer.

* A copy & paste to model differently sized stands / display panels seems to work faultlessly with the obvious adjustments of params.

* I did some more tests to check distortion distortion, marking the image on the panel with various dots and measuring lengths of the segmental arcs when flat / in a couple of stages of bending (see formulae above). Once more, I can definitely see no traces of any horizontal aberration on simple cylindrical flexing.

In any case, this is futile as I can´t get the unflexed strip from the retaining right clip to function. Maybe you can use the current non-solution for constructive brain storming. Sorry about empty promises

 

[Swizl]

No worries on this side Helmut! I appreciate all the input you and Frank have given. I'm sure the lessons will come in handy at some point. Your math skills are much better than mine.

I may just even restart this new animation from scratch. I'm trying to re-use the keys from the original animation and none of it is matching up since the signs are in a totally different world coordinate. I'm having a hard time relining and rekeying any of it to match up. If we had a dope sheet, it would be a lot easier to sync the keys back up with each other in the proper location.

P.S. Thanks for the file.