I am using UE5, but I’m sure most programs with vertex shaders will be similar.

I am trying to coil a perfectly straight vertical mesh into a Clothide Coil at runtime.

I am using WPO for this method since it is cheap and works well with numerous instances.

My use case is that I want to make an instanced fern like plant that can unravel at runtime.

See GIF: I have been able to create this effect easily using Bones. The theory being that I need to increasingly add a rotational offset as the mesh ascends, but the pivot for the rotation is always just below the displaced vertices.

This could be a complete overcomplication of the issue and there may be a more elegant way of doing this, but I am simply stumped.

I have only had success in creating the spiral originating from the centre, but this method didn’t have any transferable uses that I could find that pertain to my use case.