I have seen lots of familiar faces here, and I encourage them to contribute to this thread. My first contribution will be about UV unwrapping using shape keys.
In the ancient times before people knew what good topology actually was, Manuel, the creator of MakeHuman asked me to unwrap the human base mesh which was created by Env, and contained some creative topology ( No offense, Env ), which led to some stretching problems in the UV unwrap.
I decided the best approach was to do as follows, which, I find, is still a good solution to a number of UV mapping issues, and I think, is probably similar to what LSCM does.
Step One:
The first thing to do is to make vertex groups for your UV islands. You could make seams as a visual reference for this, or not.
Next you add a basis shape key. Then a ( second ) shape key that will become your first UV island.
With that vertex group selected, invert your selection and press H to hide.
Now, using whatever tools you like, including smooth, proportional editing, sculpt, etc., bring into focus, hopefully without skewing things too much, the parts of your mesh that you want to have the detail at, and scale them up.
Now go to the next vertex group/island, and repeat the process until your mesh is unwrapped, and by the time you’re through, you should have a pretty optimal unwrap, and a good basis for painting with no resolution issues and hopefully no stretching . If there is stretching, use the smooth function on the problem areas.
Then use the project from view option to add you islands to your UV map.
To paraphrase: You are physically deforming your mesh then using “project from view” unwrapping option.
Old school water coming from tap/hose etc.: Particle emmitor + meataballs.
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Using loose geometry to deform a mesh:
Say I wanted to make an imprint of Suzanne’s face on a planer object…
Place Suzanne under a grid, and join.
With all the Suzanne vertices selected, go into proportional edit mode and move those vertices upward, which will make an imprint of Suzanne on the grid.
Adjust the strength of PET to determine the smoothness of the transition.