Vertex groups for curves

Still no groups for curves? I want to animate a tree made of curves.



But Im lost. I would like the tree to follow a armature. If i convert to a mesh. I lost the ability to animate the the vines individually as a curve.
Any ideas?
Thanks

Convert a duplicate to a mesh and use the curve modifier to connect each mesh to the original curve (you can remove the bevel).
Edit: sorry never mind I believe I have misunderstood your question and you want to parent groups of curve control points to a bone…

I can have a armature and a curve controlling but it is kinda mess. i gave it a try after the suggestion.
I may make the main trunk a mesh and use a deform cage and parent the vines to the main trunk and i can animate them as curves of the face and vines. I would really like to leave it all curves. I have some animation ideas i want to try.

well, there is a way to keep it all curves. use the hook modifer.

simply add an empty for each control point of your curve then using the hook modifier, hook each control point to its relevent empty and add an armature. parent each empty to a bone in the armature and animate away. the more bones you have between the empties the better the deformation.

heres a quick blend to show you the principle

Attachments

hook curve test.blend (485 KB)

I started to do that. it will be alot of work. the model above needs more curves. I was not sure how it would deforms. I do not really need the empty as you can hook a segment to a bone. unless there is a reason why you do it that way. If i could put a hook to many segments at once… but I guess it will not take too long.
thanks

Ya, I can hook many segments to a bone at once but it does not deform well without weights.

you can rotate the empties to adjust the rotation of the handles, something you cant do with bones as, as you know you cant animate handles from edit mode. just a useful thing to have to be able to smooth out bad deformations in the pose.

and yes i can see it being a lot of work, but it will be worth the effort. maybe you can simplfy things with a parent armature with ik constranits to control multiple limbs at once?