Wraping tape around the ball .

[fourkan]

Hello guys,
I hope you all are doing great, just a quick question do you have any idea how I can wrap the tape around the ball in Maya? Do you have any tips and tricks?

[mcw0]

First the paper fortune teller and now this.  I love that it's not the standard character based issues.  LOL!!!

A little more description would be helpful as to what the end result is you are wanting.  Just a simple wrap or a complete coverage of the ball surface.  In any case, you might start with a curve and shape that around the ball.  And use that as a wire deformer.  I'd start there and if that doesn't get you what you want, it might give inspiration as to what to try next.  That's usually how I go about out of the ordinary deformations.  Good luck.

[fourkan]

Thank you for the prompt response 
https://youtu.be/4B2HtYH2dlQ?si=DRRgzpiEMx5ycwgG
please look at it, I want this kind of animation to be created.

[mcw0]

That's what I thought.  🙂

So a follow up question is will you also be unrolling tape from a spool?

My initial approach is still valid.  Wrap a curve around your ball to represent the path of the animation.  Then use it as a curve warp for a plane or a very thin cube.  Now the trick is to control the length of the cube.  I would take the length of the curve and use that to drive an extrusion of the end face of the cube.  The number of divisions will be a function of the curve length.  You'll also need to do some uv math if you want to texture this "tape".

Now depending on how wide your tape/cube is, you might want to consider using a bend deformer so that it lays nicely on your ball.  Luckily, since it's a ball, it's easy to set and forget the bend curvature value.  

Now the only unknown is the orientation of the extrusion along the curve.  But again, since it's a sphere, the center of the sphere is equidistant from any point on the sphere's surface.  So could be used for an up vector...if it becomes an issue.

These are all just ideas off the top of my head.  I'll have to give this one a try when I have a spare moment as it sounds fun.  Eager to see what you come up with.  Good luck.

[mcw0]

So close...and yet so far!!!  The curve warp moves the cube from the back and not the front.  So I haven't found a way to lock down what's already been stuck onto the ball.  SHOOT!!!  Sorry, this is all the time I had to play tonight.  I'll post more if I get more time.  Kinda busy time of the year.  🙂
hhmmm...now I wonder if extruding along a path might do the trick...but then the up vector...


PS.  Using lengthScale instead of offset is the trick.

[fourkan]

Thank you so much for your guidance and your effort.
you took time and did some experiments, which is very appreciated.
Let me try and will let you know the result.
Thanks once again.

[fourkan]

I tried this one.
I created a wire around the ball and extruded the cube with the wire, but the problem was that I couldn't apply UVs on the extrusion.

[mcw0]

Extract a cross section edgeloop at the end of your mesh as a curve.  Extrude that curve along the same path curve as a nurbs surface.  Convert the nurbs to poly.  This will give you uvs you can work with.  Then for the ends, just close the holes.

[fourkan]

Thank you for the suggestion, I tried and found this issue in it.

[mcw0]

I didn't have any problems with my uvs converting from nurbs to mesh.  I just used control points.  In this example, driving the repeatV of the circular ramp by dividing the uValue of the curve by 0.02 (starting value of animation)

[mcw0]

Here's my test file

[fourkan]

Thank you very much for the file,
I have gone through it but didn't understand why you created so many curves.

[mcw0]

Sorry, I should have cleaned up the file. Stuff left over from the curve warp approach.

[fourkan]

so the problem is when I tried to apply texture on your animated file it still moved my texture 😞 I didn't use ramp one I used proper texture.

[mcw0]

Does your texture fill a UV tile? If it does, it should work.

[fourkan]

What does UV tile mean?

[mcw0]

The uv space from 0 to 1 in both U and V

[fourkan]

Can you try to apply any texture to your previous file and send it to me?

[mcw0]

Here is with a texture file

[fourkan]

I wanted to express my heartfelt thanks for guiding me through every stage of this project. Your insights and support were invaluable in helping me achieve the final result.

The client ultimately decided not to include texture on the tape, which simplified the process significantly. I’m pleased to share the attached file with you—the client has approved it!

Once again, thank you for your guidance and the time you dedicated to assisting me. It truly made a difference.