Squash/stretch lattice wrecked by skinning

[Lomax]

The lattice may be confusing the skin cluster...
I would try setting the lattice's deformation order to either 'Parallel', or 'After' (you'll have to recreate the lattice, though)

[Rick Davidson]

Thanks Lomax, good call :) Rebuilt the lattice after the skinning, did the trick! Cheers

[ashishdantu]

hi rick,

i'd advise to keep ur lattice on top of ur skin cluster > meaning in ur deformation order have the skin first adn then ur lattice or free form deformers etc...

right now u rearrange ur deformation order by right clicking ur character mesh and then in that right click menu > inputs > all inputs, middle drag and drop the skin onto the FFD > which shud reorder ur skin below the FFD. this might fix this problem.

reason for this choice is u'd like to have ur basic deformation (skin cluster) at the base...and then have the extra deformations sitting on top or acting after the basic deformations....

-rgds,

[isoparmB]

You have an interesting problem here, since you're using multiple deformers to influence geometry. The main thing in this scenario is that you have to have your lattice and base follow your head around so that they can still deform properly even when skinning is also working on your mesh.

While the character is in the default pose, you can do this by grouping your lattice and base together centering the group pivot for starters. Then, make a null group by deselecting and hitting ctrl-g, then point and orient constrain this null to your character's head joint so that the null always follows it. Then parent your lattice's group to this null.

The screencap you showed might be a symptom of your geometry moving outside the boundary of your lattice and base while being deformed, this can sometimes be remedied by slightly scaling up the lattice/base group to put the geometry back within the boundary.

[Rick Davidson]

Wow thanks guys, you've all been a help. I didn't know you could reorder your deformations, I've always rebuilt things from scratch when I've hit a bug. Driven me crazy! Have used your suggestions on structure Iso, thanks.

[Rick Davidson]

Hmm gah! Now I'm having a slightly different but related problem. I've created blend shapes for my head, then attached the head to the body using combine/merge vertices. I apply the smooth skin. Now when I try a blendshape i get a similar result to my original problem - see 1st post. I've tried parallel blendshapes and front of chain, no luck. How can I fix this one? :(

[Lomax]

It sounds like the vert order on your model got messed up in the merger. The first thing I would check, is the order you selected the models before combining them... one should retain its vert order, but I can't remember which.
I can think of two rather involved workarounds if that doesn't work, but a much easier method may be to just keep the head seperate. :shrug:

[isoparmB]

1. Apply the blendshape facial targets to the head model, then do the lattice setup.
2. Skin the body and the head. Also, make sure that the skin weights for the vertices on the connecting part of the neck are exactly the same as the corresponding vertices on the body.
3. Polygon combine the head and the neck.
4. Merge vertices on the connecting row of the new geometry which is the result of the combine. Set the distance tolerance to something very low like .001.
5. To test if you have done the merge vertice correctly, perform a temporary smooth on the model. Unmerged verts will show up as a snag.

[Rick Davidson]

Iso, I owe you a beer! :) Brilliant, combining AFTER skinning made all the difference. Problem solved. Thanks for your help guys!

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