Apply a deformer to an instance object that does not affect other instances?

[Anonymous]

Hi all, I have got myself into a situation that is a little tricky to explain.

Basically I am trying to create an animated logo that is made out of four identical pieces of leaves. I started with creating one leaf and made three instances based out of it. My idea was to animate each of them with a bend deformer, so each leaf will curl up/unfold at a different speed. However, when I applied a deformer to one leaf, the same bend effect is applied to all of its other instances. This made it difficult for me to achieve the animation result I wanted.

I know I can convert the instances into individual objects, but then I would lose the flexibility of making sure all four leaves stay identical whenever I try to change the shape of one of them.

In short, I would like to keep the four pieces of leaf geometry identical (probably are instances of each other), but each has its own bend deformer applied on it, so that their animation will not be identical.

Hope this all makes sense.. Thank you in advance for any advice and suggestion. Any other workflow that can achieve the same result I wanted is also welcomed! Thank you!

Toby 

[mspeer]

Hi!

This is not possible. The idea of instances is to save memory by sharing the same shape, so instances are only made of one single shape.

If you want different shapes you need different/individual objects.

[Anonymous]

Hi mspeer, thank you so much for your prompt reply. Yeah I thought so too about the impossibility of deforming an instance object.

I have thought of referencing the object four times and then apply a deformer on each of them. But it does not sound to be the smartest way since I would have to return to the source file whenever I would have to change its shape. Would you have another workflow in mind where I can achieve the same result; keeping the four shapes identical always but each has its own deformer applied on it?

Thanks again!

[mspeer · Accepted solution]

Hi!

Using a "container" (like References, StandIn,...) is the only option, especially if you want to make changes to the original object at a later time.

[Anonymous]

I think that answers my question. Thank you for the helpful replies! Hope you're well.