Reutilizing blend shapes

[Xestion]

I would say no. The shapes from one of the guys wont have the same vertex id as the the other guy so It wont work as far as I know. But if you do already have those shapes you could easily use them as references for the brother so the process in making those shapes is alot quicker!

[FranciscoSCN]

Thanks for the reply Xestion. I see your point.

I found these threads here in the forum talking about the same subject but they are quite old:

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=88&t=147889

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=7&t=519838

I've yet to experiment the techniques described. But, as you say, the problem would be the vertex ID's since I will have to add minor differences to one of the heads. Which leads me to another question:

would it be possible to model the blend shapes, apply them in one head, duplicate it and alter, in an automated system of course, all the other geometry and it's blends? Or maybe just duplicate all 40 blend models and alter them all at the same time?

[FranciscoSCN]

So far no luck, I'm starting to think this is reaaaaally impossible. :(

Maybe I need to research even more.

[derik]

It the topology on the two heads are the same it is easy.
Just create one face with all the blendshapes , and create a separate blendshape for your second character to (dial the face 2 in) , duplicate main face with input connections , and bob's your uncle.

If topology are not the same , I normally use a wrap deformer to deform face 2 into the the blendshapes defined for face 1 , and duplicat the result off (The you have a blend for face 2 without any effort) and tweak from there .
You will end up with 2 sets of blendShapes , but the creation of the 2nd set will go very quick!

If you are interested in the wrap deform method , pm me you email address and i'll mail you a simple example scene

Hope this helps

[Mark-J]

With different topologies it all depends on how close the features are when layed ontop of each other. The best way is to just set up a wrap deformer between the 2 base heads, then turn on each blendTarget, because of the wrap that'll transfer the delta over to the new head and you just have to duplicate it.... do it for all targets and bingo. Easier if you make a quick script to do it for you ;)

If the topologies are different and the features don't line up you'll need a pre-stage to make a blend that will take the shape of the new head into that of the target one.

[woadiestyol]

+ 1 on the wrap method. We had a couple characters that had different mouths but very similar heads, so we reused all the brow shapes and simply re-created the mouth parts.

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