A waving flag: not really Bongo’s core-business: nevertheless a challenge:
Flag.3dm (373.0 KB)
To start with I made a kind of whip lash using Morphing upon a kind of sinus wave - see Animation set ‘Step 1’ in the model. A double-click on the clapperboard at the top of the Animation Manager opens the Animation Sets dialog.
I used a fairly simple curve (few control points), shifted 3 copies of the base curve (for 4 phase) and used their control points as a reference while transforming the actual curve in Animation Mode. Phase 4 is a simple copy of phase 0, hence making the lash loopable.
In the ‘Step2’ set is a first flag-attempt. I made 2 copies of the waving curve and shifted around the keyframes (0,6,12,20,27 and 0,10,18,24 and 31). Both waves are enabled Looping. Thanks to the difference in length of the loops (27 vs 31) a kind of randomness in the combination of both is induced, giving only exact repetition past tick 837. Both curves then are used in a Loft with History recorded.
Remember: History recordings won’t update in the viewportdisplay when you ‘Play’ the animation. You should constantly press (not click) the next-frame-button on the timelineslider instead.
Not bad! The flag, however waving indeed, looks rather stiff. Specifically the end away from the pole which remains straight looks unnatural.
In ‘Step 3’ an additional curve is added in the middle (again based upon a copy of the base-curve). This will bend the free end of the flag. To enhance versatility some rotational animation is added to the curve (rotation of the curve as a hole is added to the morphing data of the control-points). The center curve is additionally scaled a bit.
PS In order to have the infinitely looping animated gifs above the discrepancy in the looping of the curve was eliminated. A proper rendered video of the flag in the model will look less repetitive.