Vines

I have reached the point of the year when I have run out of ideas for blog posts so for this blog post I am simply going to look at methods that I can use to animate the growing plants in the scene. For this, I want to stay in blender render since I liked the render in blender than I did when using toon shader in cycles.
Animating vines:
Add a bezier circle and nurb path


Go to the curve tab and make sure 3D is clicked


Make the taper and bevel object the circle to obtain the simple vine shape


If you want the vine to be filled click “fill caps” if you want the object to have a point click “map taper”
           

The start and end bevel factor are used to animate the vines. To create keyframes, hover over whichever one you are using and tap “I” on the keyboard


I also wanted to animate the steam in the tea scene but all the videos that I have seen have been in cycles while I have decided to do this in blender so I think I will also use this method to try and create a 2D steam look. One thing about this method I like and do not like is that the vines are very simple. If I am going to use this method I think I will also have to animate leaves separately to sync with the growing vines if I soon think that I need more detail.

Another method:

In this video, a similar method of using curves is used but instead, the creator adds a curve goes into edit mode and deletes it.


He then goes into options on the left and changes the projection depth to surface


He then changes the fill in the curve tab to full


Next he creates the vines by hitting shift+left click and drawing the shapes he wants


I think the method will be more helpful with creating multiple plants and maintaining control of those plants by creating a shape that they will wrap around.

Work Log:
Monday:rigging
Tuesday:rigging
Wednesday:rigging
Thursday:posing and modeling props
Friday:testing out colors and renders