How to make animation like this using array?

Question

How can I make animation like this using array without deforming the shape of the ball? I already tried to make it using array and curve but the balls are deforming when I make the 2nd layer of the curve. (sorry for my bad english)

Answer 1

You don't need an array, what you need is a curve with the shape you want and then use dupliframes.

To set it up read How can I duplicate a mesh along a curve?

Then, animate the "duplication end" for the object used along the curve Read: How can i add more duplicates to a curve?

Answer 2

editing my own post since I can't upvote / comment on the other post by cegaton! (use his answer! it's 10000x better! I didn't know dupliframes existed! :D )

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hmm, at first, I tried the curve modifier, but this does morph the shape as you specifically requested it shouldn't! (So it's probably the first thing you tried!)

There was another way I 'kinda' got the desired result, or at least, a method that could (with a bit of tweaking), result in the desired output / effect.

That is to turn your path into a mesh (Alt-C), and then apply a particle system to the resultant mesh (you can't make a path itself a particle system). Then you can set the system to:

• emit from verts
• turn of 'random' emission ordering (so they iterate through the verts)
• set lifetime to long enough so that the 'snake' covers the path.

Lastly, to tweak this, you probably want to 'fix' the mesh that's drawn so that you get evenly spaced vertices (the one i made now was very crude & hand drawn though, using shift + clickdrag in edit mode on the path)