Hello Dave!

Thank you very much for your help! I've constructed a set of four joints and attaching them to the motion path. However, it seems that I am unable to create a flow path with the first joint and the CV curve; I get the error: "None of the selected objects are animated by a motion path with the Follow option." This is unusual since the Follow option is checked when I attached the joints to the motion path. (I've also looked around and found one advice to create joints and bind it to the cylinder and create a spline IK to attach to the curve, but that gave me a lot of other problems).

Ideally, the effect I wanted to achieve is similar to a snake moving around the screen that can increase or decrease in width (have the snake grow fatter or skinnier while it moves). So far I've been able to have it move around on a path, but I can't seem to find the ability to make it fatter/skinnier while moving on the path without it being displaced from the motion path itself. Perhaps this clears up any confusion? Thanks Dave!