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MrMint
11-02-2008, 03:46 PM
Hi :),

I wanted to know if there is a way to deform a character without using a muscle-setup?

I was thinking about some kind of lattice or wrap-deformer squashing based on weights. Say the upper leg has one wrap-deformer and the lower lag has also one and where lattice points are going to cross each other, both lattices will deform based on some kind of weight.

As an example, the area of the ankle doesnt really deform so it gets a lower value or zero and the upper leg, where the ankle may touch gets a higher value and deforms more, based on the shape of the ankle.

Or is there any other way to achieve this?


And there is a second question....:)

How can I achieve this kind of control:
link_to_video (http://www.screencast.com/users/bclark_cgchar/folders/Jing/media/18990445-420b-4e97-9678-41f924973eaf)
It was explained here (http://inspired3dadvancedrigging.blogspot.com/2008/07/skin-controlmuscle-under-skin-and.html) how to achieve this, but it is not explained well or better said I guess there is additional knowledge required I dont have as I m pretty new at skinning/rigging.

I did all the steps metioned but only the curve I added as influence object is moving and I cant control it with the rebuilded curve.


Thanks in advance.
wesdood
11-02-2008, 11:18 PM
You have to paint the influence weight onto the mesh. Under the edit deformers menu, you would paint wire weights and add influence.

You can also do what you what you were saying by using numbers on each vert by selecting the vert and going into the component editor.
MrMint
11-03-2008, 08:24 AM
Hi wesdood,

thank very much you for ur answer.
The problem I have is (and here (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=88&t=88567&page=4&pp=15) it has been said again (Laa-Yoshs answer) that I ll lose volume if I use weights and dont use corretive blendshapes. And the problem with blendshapes are (or, so far I understood) that they might work if you bend in a certain direction, but regarding the shoulder/arm there are a lot of possibilities how they can be posed.

The problem with the deformer I have is, that, lets say if I bend the knee the calf will meet the upper leg first and at finally the ankle will meet the buttock.
That means I need some kind of local deformation running from the knee to the buttock/ankle. Additionally the area around the knee is fleshy. the upper leg and the calf maybe squash by 50% (each) and the buttock is very squashy but the ankle is harder. That means the buttock will be deformed more by the ankle than the ankle will be deformed by the buttock.

I know these questions are kind of strange as I have just some kind of idea and dont know how to transfer my idea (if it is possible) into maya.
derik
11-07-2008, 09:19 AM
Have you seen Michael comet's poseDeformer?

It's great for posing shoulders with corrective blendshapes and stuff!

Check out -- http://www.comet-cartoons.com/MELfiles/poseDeformer.html

Hope it helps!
MrMint
11-08-2008, 12:16 AM
Hi derik,

thanks a bunch. I tried it but unfortunately it is for up to V8.0 :(
stewartjones
11-08-2008, 01:42 AM
You could come up with a number of solutions for this.

Muscles as you have mentioned. Pose Space Deformers work well too. You could add extra joints in there to help the problematic areas, even set up constraints or set driven keys so that the extra joints move correctly etc. Corrective blendshapes should work fine if you don't want to do any of the stuff I just mentioned, just animate your shot, then go and clean the poses which have problems.
AnimAitor
11-17-2008, 09:00 AM
MrMint, what version of Maya are you running?

djx compiled Comet's poseDeformer for Maya 8.5 win32 (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=88&t=503907&highlight=poseDeformer) Maya 2008 win32 (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=88&t=541676&highlight=poseDeformer) and Maya 2008 win64 (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=88&t=635244&highlight=poseDeformer)

Hope that helps...
MrMint
11-17-2008, 09:29 AM
Hey, thanks a bunch AnimAtor,

I havnt replied because an other problem came up :banghead: . But I will try it of course and post my experience. Could be just a matter of months

:bowdown:
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