Lewis Pickston breaks down a particular component of a recent animation, showing how he created the ribbon using nested deformers. Lewis uses a standard animation path and flow object in Maya to create the basic animation for the ribbon.
To gain more control over the ribbon, Lewis uses multiple nested or stacked deformers that can easily alter the shape of the ribbon during the animation. This is an easy way to be able to pose and key the shape of the ribbon over time without entering into the realm of building a complex rig for the system.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onNQqnH1Jv4
