Blend shapes as Influence Objects in Smooth Bind?

# 1 25-05-2004 , 06:16 AM

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Blend shapes as Influence Objects in Smooth Bind?

Is it possible? I can get the influence objects' scale to affect the skin, but changing the influence objects' shape has no effect. Basically, what I'm trying to do is to make a character look like he's breathing. The character is built somewhat like Mike from Monsters, Inc., where his face and his body are a single central sphere-type object. I'm having a hell of a time coming up with a convincing breathing setup.

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# 2 25-05-2004 , 04:58 PM

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If i was you i would try putting some bones in the middel of his rib cage area, maybe just a two bone chain on each side then push the front bone in and out

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# 3 25-05-2004 , 05:56 PM

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A blendshape will not work, because it is not actually transform data. It is a deformation just like the smooth skin you are trying to influence. Influence objects affect the skin based on actual tranformations.

Rubberkidney's suggestion is a good one. It's a brute force method, but it works (I've used the same approach on my rigs).

More often than not, the reason the breathing doesn't look right it probably because of how you are animating it. Breathing motions are not restricted to the chest area. It combines subtle movements from the entire upper body. In a normal human, the shoulders move up a tiny bit, and there is some movement in the upper spine.

For your character, you might try some overall body movements to accentuate the breathing. Maybe have the body shift slightly up and down. Do you have a render that we can look at to see what you have so far?

Danny Ngan
Animator | Amaze Entertainment
my website | my blog | my job

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