combining deformers and cluster weights...
 

Hi everybody...

I've been intensely learning Maya 5 over the past few weeks and I'm ready to start asking other people for help, since the books I've read and tutorials I've found aren't helping me anymore.

Here's the question:
I'm trying to apply a non-linear deformer to a NURB surface, but I want to vary the effect that deformer has on different areas of the surface.

Let's say a plane.
I create a 10x10 NURBS plane, with, say... 20x20 subdivisions. I switch to component mode, select all the CVs, and create a cluster. Then, using the Paint Cluster Weights Tool, I paint a circle (to a value of 1). So I've weighted a ring of CVs on the cluster/plane.

Now, I want to apply a non-linear deformer to that plane (we'll say a SINE deformer...) so it only affects that ring of CVs which I've weighted. That ring will be deformed and leave the rest of the plane unaffected/undeformed.

But Maya doesn't seem to want to work like that... Am I going about this the wrong way?

If I am correct, the weighting of the cv's has nothing to do with the deformer, so I'm thinking you'll have to do it another way. I could be COMPLETELY wrong however since I don't know that much about clusters and deformers. I believe one way you could do it is to project a curve onto your plane, then split the two sections up so the part you do want to be affected by the deformer and the part you don't want to be affected by the deformer are two seperate objects. You can then simply apply the deformer to one of the objects without the use of clusters.

Once again, I'm just taking blind swings here, so don't take my word for any of this. lol Can someone else have a go at this perhaps?

You can select only the CVs you want the deformer to affect before applying the deformer.

ahh. there you go.