How to animate extrusion
 

Hi, I have a simple question.

I'm trying to animate the extrusion process of a simple cube polygon. I would like to explore a simple shape and animate the process of it evolving into a complex shape. I've tried setting keyframes, and this seems great to set transform attributes, etc., but does not seem to set extrusion.

For example, If I extrude a face on a cube and set a keyframe at frame 20, the extrusion is still present when I rewind to frame 1.

I would also like to be able to subdivide a face, and just extrusion one of the subdivisions and animate this as well.

Is this possible in Maya?

Not really (that I know of) because the extrude command is used in component mode whereas animation is generally done in object mode.

One way to get the effect you want is to create a blend shape relationship. Take your original cube, duplicate it, and extrude away. Once you have the desired extrusion, select the extruded cube first and THEN the original. Go ti Animation>deform>create blend shape and you'll see the original cube morph.

Hope that helps!

Actually, I figured out how to do this. As long as your have the poly extrude node selected in the attributes editor with the face that you are going to extrude selected, you can keyframe this!!! Im quite happy as it works like a charm. Technically the extrusion itself is not automated, but any changes to the extrude face like position, rotation and scale are.

For anyone who wants to learn this:

1. Select face
2. Extrude
3. Select Poly Extrude node in attribute editor and press "s" to set keyframe. All of the properties will change color.
4. Move to another frame.
5. Edit face properties like location until set to where you wanted to extrude to.
6. Press "s" to set keyframe again.
7. Rewind and enjoy.

Cheers

What?!

hehe ... didnt know that this is possible ... thx for the explanation Bluetech :beer:

I have not however been able to extrude along path with this process and have it work. Any one been able to make this happen?

well i dont know if this little tut here is the "complete" answer to what your looking for, but it does teach you how to extrude along a curve. so once you learn this you should do some experimenting on your own, like taking a look at the options box of the extrude, or looking the the options of the extrution in the channel box or moving the verts like the guy does or even have it extrude as a poly instead of a nurbs. theres alot of stuff you can check out. click me for the tut

Great tutorial for extruding curves, but I still dont seem to be able to extrude face. The option that is being keyframed is not available when you extrude a face.

Ill keep trying here.

me too, ived tried but didnt work. if anyone knows how to make this happen, dont be affaid to say it ;)

ived also wanted to know how to animate extrusion but never really found out away. if you do find out, give us a shout and let me now, thanks man ... :)

-marlon