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A new Primitive Type1) will be developed, called “db&w Spline”.
Initially this will host a Bezier Spline2) which can be open or closed. When selected, it can be edited using a Gizmo3).
Internally, the splines will be managed using a global plugin4) to allow other plugins to discover and use the splines.
To make the spline useful, we'll add a motion plugin as well as an evaluation node that can be used for motion node graphs.
The spline will be static - the control points can not be animated at this stage.
Due to the complexity of getting the architecture right, The Base Stage will be a two months project on Patreon.
Following the base stage, the following modules may be added but some may depend on others.
Allows for the whole spline shape to be animated using a single envelope.
Might adds envelopes to the spline controls points and handles and updates the gizmo to allow for keyframing the points and handles.
Allows knots and control points to follow other items.
This adds CSplines (the ones used by default for LightWave envelopes) as well as B-Splines. Splines can be converted, but only the control points are translated. The shape of the curves will change.
Add more functionality to the spline editing tool.
Adds a node and a deformer plugin to deform a mesh along a spline.
Requires splines to be animatable.
A node that computes the closest distance to a spline, this can be used for shading.
Allows for splines to be rendered.