I have plans for writing a tutorial to make an animated figure (bones, constraints, edge fill, etc), all that's needed is time.
Let's make a can with 3 sections. To make bones work decent You should at least have 1 or 2 sections in between Your bone sections (the more sections, the smoother the bends). So we'll make a can with 7 vertical sections.
Put an axis at the bottom of section 1 (the bottom one), section 4, and section 7 (top). In the attribute requester name them bot, mid, and top.
Enter Pick Group mode. Click on mid, then top: Group them. Click on bot, then multiclick mid. Group them. Click on the can axis (which now becomes the parent), then multiclick bot. Group them.
Pick Face mode. Multipick the top row of points (faces of top of can). Make this Your Small Bone Subgroup for the "top" axis. Multipick the top 3 sections of the can. These are Your Big Bone Subgroup for "top". Multipick the top 4 sections of the can. Make these Your Small Bone Subgroup for "mid". Multipick the top 6 sections of the can. Big Bone Subgroup for "mid". Multipick all sections of the can and make Your Small Bone Subgroup for "bot". We'll also use all sections for Big Bone Subgroup for "bot". This allows us to deform the whole can without moving the "bot" axis.
Pick Group mode. Pick "top" or "mid" and rotate them around Z. Click on can axis. Click on "Update Bones" menu item. We can also rotate around X or Y to bend the can over. Try it.
Set "State" to "DEFAULT".
Pick Object mode. Pick can axis. "Freeze" all world axis. Pick "Constrain" menu item. Pick "top" axis. Rotate and see all 3 axis rotate differant amounts. Pick Group mode. Pick can axis and "Update Bones". Again You can also move, which affects all the bones to bend the can.
Last Update: Aug 26, 1995