Modeling normals?

[Krion]

Hi,

 

I did model normals (in order to get the extrusion I wanted) in the past by this method (see previousmethod.hip | which basically was "grouping > falloff node > lerp in wrangle").

But I'm sure there are better ways of doing this. And now I need to do it in a much more 'chaotic'/artist friendly manner, because I basically want to create a unrolled scroll of paper who lays out on a table in an chaotic manner.

I want this paper to have words and pictures on it so I will need to make an object and bend it using a path deform, for which I found some help online. But now I need to model these normals so I can control how the paper is rotated along the curve. 

Does anyone have any suggestions on how you could do this in a more fluent way than my previous method?

 

Thanks in advance. 

[CinnamonMetal]

Polyframe SOP on a curve, orient the points to follow the direction of the paper, create an attribute from those points. On the polyExtrude SOP you could use an attribute or expression for the extrusion.

[Krion]

I am searching for some way to 'model' the normals, like you would transform or rotate points with a soft transform or something. Is that what you mean with "orient the points"? When I rotate a point in an Edit SOP it doesn't rotate the normals. 

Do you mean something like that when you say 'orient the points'? I can't really imagine what the procedure would be that you explain.

Would you maybe look at my demo file? 

PathWrangle-hm.hipnc

Edited September 8, 2019 by OdForest

[Librarian]

@OdForest easy solution 

https://www.sidefx.com/tutorials/game-development-toolset-overview/

[Krion]

Thanks, there's a Path Deform in there! 

But is it also for editing Normals 'softly'? 

[Librarian]

smooth like butter  

[Krion]

I guess you mean that you have some twist control on the Path Deform sop? 

Anyways, it is not as much control as you would have if there was some intuitive way of editing normals. 

Also: the text disappears when I twist it using that sop.  And the Twist Ramp doesn't seem to do any thing.

@CinnamonMetal Would like to know how the method you described would work.

PathWrangle-hm2.hipnc

Help would be appreciated very much.  

Edited September 8, 2019 by OdForest

[CinnamonMetal]

Create a curve and deform it how you want it by simply selecting the points, and deforming. Then using the PolyFrame SOP, get the tangents to orient along the curve, that is your first step; remember you want tangentU, not biTangent  Once you've got the tangent vectors to orient how you want, then using the PolyExtrude, extrude along the curve beginning with the first point on the curve, that is somewhat the foundation.

Game Tools is alot of automation based on pre-defined criteria; hence your not getting what you want, that is my take on it.

[Krion]

Thanks guys. Had to do some research in this orient stuff, but it works beautifully...

I've made a paint node with an @angle attribute and then have this as a code:

 

Btw if anyone has any idea how to get the text deform along with the grid, please let me know here.  

Edited September 11, 2019 by Krion