Dodgy
11-30-2010, 03:07 AM
Hi all,
So I worked out a way to get exactly perfect joint morphs working in Layout. The problem is it uses FI mini morph and that is a bit fiddly to work with.
A quick run down of the methods I've tried first:
Anything using weightmaps is out as I very rarely use them, and I'd like the method to be more flexible than this.
Anything using JointMorph doesn't work as soon as you rotate a higher bone in the hierarchy. Try sculpting an elbow then using JointMorph and then rotating the shoulder. The morph starts morphing in the wrong direction. Smartmorph from Polas has the same problem.
JointMorphPlus morphs properly, but it's hard to get the morph exact as it needs a morph which has been generated before the bones distort the mesh.
FI's minimorph is the only tool for layout which allows you to edit the mesh before bones, which you do in the panel (which shows the mesh undeformed by bones), but after each move, the layout mesh updates, which shows you the post bones deformation. This gives perfect results when saved as an endomorph and used with JointMorphPlus, but the interface is a bit of a pain to work with, both the fact the navigation around it's 3d view is not the same as LW's, and you can only move, rotate and scale points, when I'd really like drag/dragnet-like tools as well. Does anyone know of any other tools which can do the same thing, but is more user friendly?
So I worked out a way to get exactly perfect joint morphs working in Layout. The problem is it uses FI mini morph and that is a bit fiddly to work with.
A quick run down of the methods I've tried first:
Anything using weightmaps is out as I very rarely use them, and I'd like the method to be more flexible than this.
Anything using JointMorph doesn't work as soon as you rotate a higher bone in the hierarchy. Try sculpting an elbow then using JointMorph and then rotating the shoulder. The morph starts morphing in the wrong direction. Smartmorph from Polas has the same problem.
JointMorphPlus morphs properly, but it's hard to get the morph exact as it needs a morph which has been generated before the bones distort the mesh.
FI's minimorph is the only tool for layout which allows you to edit the mesh before bones, which you do in the panel (which shows the mesh undeformed by bones), but after each move, the layout mesh updates, which shows you the post bones deformation. This gives perfect results when saved as an endomorph and used with JointMorphPlus, but the interface is a bit of a pain to work with, both the fact the navigation around it's 3d view is not the same as LW's, and you can only move, rotate and scale points, when I'd really like drag/dragnet-like tools as well. Does anyone know of any other tools which can do the same thing, but is more user friendly?