[Fade]

Hi, I'm trying to smoothly bend a boned subpatch object in Layout but i'm having some problems. The object is just a simple rectangular shape with 2 square holes in it, as you can see from the attached image.

Although the object is subpatched, I needed the edges to be sharp, so I used a subpatch weight map to sharpen up the edges. I then added some bones to the object to allow me to bend it in Layout. The problem I'm having is that when I rotate a bone to bend the object I get a nasty dent in the center which I can't seem to get rid of. What I'd like is to have the object look as smooth in the middle as it does at the edges. What is causing this dent, and how can I fix it?

I've added some descriptions to the attached image,
Thanks for any help offered

[Mark]

Not entirely sure why this is happening. I'm thinking that it could be something to do with the overall bone influence - the bone in the middle adding up to too much influence in the center. Any chance you could post the object and scene files here so we can take a closer look?

[Fade]

Ok, i've got two posts. In this one I've attached a picture which shows the bone weight shade, so you can see that theres something going on there, I'm just not sure how to fix it. Isn't there some way to paint onto the model to make the white area blue as well? (Just a Guess)

And in the second post below i've attached a zip file with the scene file and the object. Hope you manage to solve it!

[Fade]

And heres the scene file and the object in a zip.
(btw, the bone that I'm using to bend the box is called 'TopLean')

[Mark]

OK, I've had a bit of a play with the scene and it appears as though the bone influences for the inner bones are affecting the flow of the object.

If you set limited range on for all the bones, then adjust the influence spheres to appropriate sizes, you will see differing results with the overall shape of the box. I found the best results by setting the influence range to 1mm for each of the vertical bones and 1m for each of the horizontal bones. This way, the vertical chain only has influence over the overall shape of the bone sub-chain. The main horizontal bones are the ones controlling the deformation of the box.

Attached is an updated scene and object file for you to take a look at. Note also that if you set the subdivison options for the box to 'after bones' then the problem also disappears, but the box does not appear to actually subdivide correctly and instead maintains a distinctly angular feel.

[Fade]

Thats great! thanks very much!