29 April, 2009

BlendShapes 1

If somehow (or by doing something stupid like I did) if you have blendshapes created which don't have the same vertex order as your base geometry or if geometry changes in the base model, don't panic! You can use already created blendshapes to make new ones. Use a wrap deformer to do this as explained below.

-> Take all old blendshape geometry and add them to old base geometry using "Blend Shape" deformer.
-> Align new geometry poition to match with the old base geometry (which has blendshapes).
-> Apply a wrap deformer so the old base geometry drives the new base geometry.
-> Now dial in each blendshape individually (you just need to do it for one side, left or right). This will deform the new geometry as the old base geometry deforms.
-> Duplicate your new deformed geometry. You have got a blendshape for new geometry!

You can adjust the options in wrap deformer to get the best results. And when you dial blendshapes make sure you don't get any undesired deformations. You can actually paint blendshape weight to remvoe it later if you have any extra vertices being affected.

2 comments:

  1. It's funny that you post this, because a few of my friends had some trouble with it. They came up with a different way of doing it though, because they were having issues with a global controller altering the vertices on blendshapes that were based on other blendshapes...

    I definitely need more blendshape practice.

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  2. It would be really interesting to hear about other methods. Blendshapes become a little complicated when there are several layers of rigs combined with other deformations.

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