Hi =(
Well I’m trying to animate a fat character but I want to use the mesh deform tool. I downloaded a .blend file of the character CHINCHILLA from here http://www.blender.org/development/release-logs/blender-246/mesh-deform/
But I have no idea where to start. Please help. This is what I have so far.
Andy2.blend (231 KB)
OK I played with this. First, chinchilla uses the old deform - what version of blender are you using? In 2.4x the 1st deform modifier cage had to completely encompass the object to work right. The downloadable chinchilla model does not do this correctly so it breaks when you try to use it in 2.49.
To fix it, set display on the modifier cage to solid and edit it so that none of the deformed object sticks through. Subsequent deformer cages can just be surfaces and they work fine so long as atleast one vert lies within the first deformer cage.
Take a look at my test vid here:
I added secondary mesh deformers to the belly and hips. each with its own control bone, to get some wiggle making Chinchilla dance. So that makes a stack of 4 mesh deform modifiers!
So as far as I understand it, mesh deform moves each point of an object in the assigned vertex group in proportion (does not seem to be linear btw) to its distance from the verts of the deforming mesh and its weight painting strength. Mesh deform is good for smooth movements, especially useful when you do not want the surface to make folds. It is good for general movements, not for fine control. It is bad in areas where you want the armature in full control, eg the fingers. Thus the main deform is usually applied to the vertex group called Nomeshdeform that is weight painted and then applied in inverse! Lots of times you see it used to do a comic stretch on a head while the facial controls are usually still done with seperate bones and shapes. You manipulate the mesh with an armature, it can even be the deforming armature, and this can help preserve volume.
In 2.5, you don’t have so many limitations. You do not need an all encompassing surrounding mesh to start and thus you can use small deform meshes placed strategicly about to handle belly jiggle (jiggly bellys are not supposed to fold when they bend!)
I looked at your file, and all I get is 1 window with the character and the deform cage. Blender won’t let me open any other windows, and when I switch the window I have to an outliner, it displays nothing. The file appears buggy, what version of blender are you using?
I played around with this once. Basically, after you create the mesh deform cage, you have to rig it with an armature just like you would a regular mesh (armature modifier, weight paint, etc) then add the mesh deform modifier to your character mesh. The closer the deform cage is to the mesh, the more control it has. A tight cage around an arm will produce a sharp bend when the arm is bent, a loose cage will produce a smoother bend.
When I played with it, in blender 2.49, I created a poorly modeled torso and arms. The idea was to test how the mesh deformer would help out with deforming a model with poor topology. I rigged the torso with an armature and weight painted the right side of the torso. On the left side of the torso, I used the mesh deform cage weight painted to my armature. Then I created a simple action so I could compare how the cage worked. I’ve attached that file.
Randy
meshdef2.blend (233 KB)