[Bf-committers] rigging [was: Re: The Future of Blender Projects WAS meeting notes]

[Benjamin Tolputt]

On 18/06/2012 11:08 PM, Tobias Oelgarte wrote:
> Am 18.06.2012 14:44, schrieb Dan Eicher:
>> The Big Buck Bunny rigs use the mesh deform modifier which I'd imagine
>> isn't supported by any exporters -- could be wrong though.
>>
>> Basically rig-->deform mesh-->character mesh so you'd have to export
>> the def mesh to<other program>  def mesh and have the armature drive
>> that.
>>
>> I'm guessing that no game engine uses a harmonic-mesh whatever to
>> drive a fps animated character?
>>
>> Dan
>>
> As far a i could see any game engine was happy to use armature animation
> together with driven shapekeys. With the right drivers this can deliver
> really good results while being very efficient to compute, even so there
> might be some extra work done on the models compared to deform cages.
>
> I'm currently working on a system that allows the editor to pose a bone
> and to add a shapekey for this pose (both as a pair). Then he goes to
> the next pose and creates a second shapekey and so on. If the user now
> poses a bone the system automatically finds the desired influence for
> any related shapes. That way he can create as many shapes as he needs
> without bothering about the mathematical background to interpolate
> between them.

There is a good paper for this I've always wanted to implement but never 
got around to spending the time personally on (I use standard 
weight-painting to start with, so never needed it). Basically it allows 
you to control the mesh shape anyway you like and it works out a 
weight-painted solution for you (using additional bones where required).

Building Efficient, Accurate Character Skins from Examples
http://research.cs.wisc.edu/graphics/Gallery/SkinFromExamples/skin-from-examples.pdf

-- 
Regards,

Benjamin Tolputt
Analyst Programmer