the wave deformer is good for bending/warping (if the scale is large enough). the image is an example of a wave deformer in the x and y directions acting on a 2D plane. I don't recall the settings, but ISTR it was a default wave, x-rot of 90 and wavelength of about .4 for the horizontal wave and one or two smaller (amplitude) vertical waves of around .6 wavelength. the trick is to get the amplitude large enough so that it isn't that circular deformer, in which case the critical variables become the rotation, amplitude and wavelength of the wave object. the position of the wave object is a less critical variable IMVHO.