before I dig myself into a hole - is there a way to parent empties (or alternatively objects) to a deforming vertex/face on a mesh via geometry nodes?
was thinking something like getting the position of the nearest point/face and somehow using that? If at all possible.
Geometry nodes do not like empties because they have no geometry, but you can easily instance objects that have geometry to verts in geometry nodes.
I can just convert the empties to points I guess and take it from there, but the question still stands - is there a way to parent (let’s say an object then) to the next nearest point on a deforming object? basically like parenting it to the next closest vert.
It should be possible with the raycast node set to nearest. Then instead of instancing translating the object to that point.
I don’t think so, as that would always be at a different point if the surface is deforming.
If you want it to always be on the same vert you can instance it on that vertex.
I need to use existing empties or objects, and want to maintain relative distance from the mesh like so -
You can parent empties to verts of a mesh (without GN) and then deform the mesh with GN, (that looks like what you have done already) I must be missing something.
parent.blend (105.2 KB)
I know, I just did that in my example above.
I would like to use geometry nodes on purpose as in my use case there will be many empties.
Hmm looks like you are on the right track. But yes you would have to do that for each empty.
Or instance the empties on a vertex group.
I have to use existing empties. The initial idea is to transfer bones between characters using the same topology. Kind of the reverse of binding the mesh to the armature. I’d use the empties to transfer the bone positions from one character to the other.
Should be possible with using a collection of empties, just need to figure out how exactly.
