Phil Radford shows how you can animate objects along a curve using a Curve Warp Deformer.

In Maya, there is one technique most used for creating a path animation or having an object flow along a path. Motion Path and Flow path are old standbys, but there are other ways to create the same thing. A new tutorial from Phil Radford (the Maya Guy) shows that you can get the same result using a Curve Warp Deformer in Maya.

Curve Warp Deform Might Be Better.

Radford walks through how you can not only have an object conform to the shape of a curve in Maya but also shows how easy it is to animate. It’s all handled by a curve deformer. The deformer provides some options that you won’t find in the motion path/flow path features. Notably, you can have a Scale Curve setting that affects the object profile in deformation. 

If you don’t immediately see Curve Warp under the deform menu, make sure you search for it and turn it on under settings and preferences.