LordMcGoat
02-28-2006, 09:02 PM
I'm currently trying to get a character to morph into a number of different shapes, using a rig that can squash and stretch, and blendshapes.
I just want my character to morph into a new body with a new pose, be still for a camera pan, and morph again and so on. The basic idea is this - the rig morphs the character into his new shape and pose as much as it can. At that stage I take a copy of the mesh, and sculpt that into the exact shape I want it. I then dial this in as a blendshape so that as the rig is moving to its new shape, the blendshape is driving the verts at the same time to a more accurate new shape. This works fine.
The problem is, I have eyes and teeth as seperate meshes (which also change shape). These are parented to appropriate joints in the head. As the rig moves, they stay in place BUT as the blendshape dials in, the mesh is no longer fully controlled by the rig, as the blendshape is pulling it away, and as a result the eyes/teeth are left fully controlled by the rig, and kind of end up hovering in no mans land, outside of the head.
I've tried having blendshapes that control the eyes and teeth globally, and dialing these in on the exact same frames as the main body blend shapes, and although this makes them closer to the inside of the head, they're still out of place. Hand animating them is really hard, and I can't do it without some wobble.
Anyway, I'm no rigger, so can anyone see a way around this problem? I'm about to try constraining the eyes/teeth to a locator or empty group that is locked onto a vertex on the surface of the object. But since I'm pretty certain that that's a crap idea, I'm posting in anticipation of it failing, and thus still leaving me with the problem :)
I just want my character to morph into a new body with a new pose, be still for a camera pan, and morph again and so on. The basic idea is this - the rig morphs the character into his new shape and pose as much as it can. At that stage I take a copy of the mesh, and sculpt that into the exact shape I want it. I then dial this in as a blendshape so that as the rig is moving to its new shape, the blendshape is driving the verts at the same time to a more accurate new shape. This works fine.
The problem is, I have eyes and teeth as seperate meshes (which also change shape). These are parented to appropriate joints in the head. As the rig moves, they stay in place BUT as the blendshape dials in, the mesh is no longer fully controlled by the rig, as the blendshape is pulling it away, and as a result the eyes/teeth are left fully controlled by the rig, and kind of end up hovering in no mans land, outside of the head.
I've tried having blendshapes that control the eyes and teeth globally, and dialing these in on the exact same frames as the main body blend shapes, and although this makes them closer to the inside of the head, they're still out of place. Hand animating them is really hard, and I can't do it without some wobble.
Anyway, I'm no rigger, so can anyone see a way around this problem? I'm about to try constraining the eyes/teeth to a locator or empty group that is locked onto a vertex on the surface of the object. But since I'm pretty certain that that's a crap idea, I'm posting in anticipation of it failing, and thus still leaving me with the problem :)