NOODLE ARMS! Maya: using curve warp for tentacles, snakes, cables, vines and all things bendy.

This is a 'quick fix' for still renders and not for animators or those looking for a versatile tentacle rig for their turbosquid model.
Tutorial starts at 1:25
Many thanks to my student for her robot model for this tutorial.

[@frajet]

Wow, clear explanation with all the possible cases one may be in trouble with. Must be good teacher. Thx

[@Chuntise]

I bet if you attached some clusters to the points of the curve, that'd be all you needed to do some simple rigging. You'd just animate the clusters and parent them where you needed another transform to affect it too. I haven't tested this though. But thank you. I work with curve warps all the time at my job and I haven't been able to find a suitable solution for when the curve itself deforms but locking the curve length may be just what I need.

[@CGITutorials]

Thank you, yes once I have better mastered the nuances of rigging I will get some more rigging tutorials up. Glad it helped and good luck with your work projects.

[@star_N_knight]

Tysm sir, i was looking for a video just like this to rig a alien with octopus like arms for one of my short animated movie, it was a great help =]

[@ArcanaFauna]

Thank you! I've been searching for the past two days for something exactly like this. This can be used for so many different applications!

[@CGITutorials]

Thank you for the feedback. Glad it was helpful!

[@KUNAL7995]

learnt so many things with this tutorial.. thank you so much... I wish i could offer you a drink.

[@CGITutorials]

Thanks, Any time! Means a lot.

[@maksimshniak9430]

Nice tutorial, thanks!!!

[@CGITutorials]

You're welcome!

[@wings7952]

Hi Ben this is Kiran, I was one of your students in school and i just want to say, thank you, you have saved my butt for my uni short film project and this video has helped alot

[@CGITutorials]

Kiran! Great to hear from you. You are most welcome, would love to see what you have been up to and good luck with your uni projects!

[@yilin9431]

Thanks your tutorials, it is really helpful!

[@athelstanm7298]

Thank You for This Great Tutorial!!!

[@dylilah9689]

Thanks for the tutorial. It was very helpfull

[@namluong9295]

Thank you, Sir!

[@CGITutorials]

You are welcome!

[@Vexcenot]

2:56 & 5:13 7:27 actually start of tutorial

[@VsevolodVityaz]

Amazing!

[@ruudygh]

soon as you create cluster, the curve lost its fluidity(i think maya auto create an origShape of the curve and breaks the fluidity). how to solve this problem?

[@methlokaijufan9729]

When I click on the curve wrap my object just dissapears

[@fuckkmyballs]

nice, definitely helped me

[@arendvandermerwe3309]

this is soooo cool

[@CGITutorials]

Yep! Fun to work with. Good luck with your 3d projects.

[@maxparkervfx]

How do we become students of yours?

[@CGITutorials]

Hey thanks man, I teach 14-18 year olds in a public South London school. If you need any help with anything feel free to email me at vfxlocker [at] gmail.com. If you send maya files and sketches of what you want it to look like I can help fix issues or make a tutorial if it looks like a common problem. Once we come out of lockdown more fully in September I will probably be sucked into the black hole of school admin and paperwork so I am trying to make the most of my time actually helping young people learn software now.

[@gkclan]

Can we have a version for joint for game engine ?

[@psychopathicmustache]

is it possible to animate the claws at the end of each arm I'm thinking of making a robot with doc ock style arms but the rig breaks when I add what would be hand controls

[@CGITutorials]

Unfortunately not. This is a quick fix for modelling purposes only. I wish maya made parenting more powerful so it could parent to deformers like this. To get what you want I would follow the first 6 one hour character rigging tutorials here kzbin.info/www/bejne/q6OmkId4hrZ0bdE until you complete the one with the hand`. All other octopus or rigging tutorials were either timelapses or had no sound. Sorry!

[@jayvincenttenedero5900]

can you parent the start of the curve to your chracter??

[@Karthikcharan_ks]

Curve warp not shown in deformers what to do...?

[@CGITutorials]

Hey, what version of maya do you have. It's probably not in Maya LT. It may show as Deform > Create Curve Warp or as Deform > Create > curve warp. Alternatively go to the MASH shelf and click on the curve warp button (looks like a Red C with grey C on top). If you don't see the MASH shelf go to windows>settings & preferences>plug-in manager> search at top for MASH and tick MASH.mll for loaded and auto load. Good luck!

[@Karthikcharan_ks]

@@CGITutorials TQ I go to plugins and enable curve warp tick box and it's solved

[@imapota9312]

How would I apply this if I wanted to use it as a rig?

[@CGITutorials]

关山叨匪 is right as far as I know. I have not been able to get it to work on a rig. I personally use it for modelling/static posing purposes only. Learning intermediate/advanced rigging is my next life goal!

[@imapota9312]

@@CGITutorials okay thanks :) how would you guys advice me to rig noodle arms? I want to rig hands and connect them to noodle arms but I'm not sure what would be the best way.

[@Kliefer]

Select The curve add to each point a Cluster (found under Rigging) and now you can parent a joint to each cluster and have a this rig but game ready