Animating Curve using Hooks not working – Blender Verge3D

what version of v3D and B3D are you using. I use both shapekeys and armatures for this stuff all the time….I have actually used bendybones on a project once too..soooo…let me know wondering is something has changed.

Simple example of armatures and shape keys in B3D 4.2.3 and V3D. 4.9.1

Project Zip with blend file: https://v3d.net/1avo
demo of project here: https://v3d.net/1avp
click on a cylinder to activate animation
left cylinder – armature based, right cylinder shape key based.

• This reply was modified 2 months, 1 week ago by xeon.

The smoothness of the bend is dependent on the segments of your tube / cable. My rigs for these things typically consist of 32 or more bones. I typically address the bones as an object and use logic to rotate the armatures as needed based on other driving variables. In your case as the robot looking arm moves…then there would be logic that rotated each bone to account for the angle of the robot arm. Bendy bones work too but…the overall effect is no different than a standard armature once inside V3D. However if you robot arm is well defined and constrained then shape keys are the simple solution.

If you havent tried the Cablenator plugin…its very helpful at create the cables and the models can be rigged or used for shape keys. Needless to say though.. the more smooth you want the cable curves..the more segments you will need.