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The mesh deform cage
THE MESH DEFORM CAGE
Let's adjust the Mdef Cage and see our character in motion for the first time!
18 comments
Hey great course :) Here is a quick script that speed up the binding for multiple objects (indentation's not working here..):
import bpy context = bpy.context for obj in context.selected_objects: for mod in obj.modifiers: if mod.type == "MESH_DEFORM": mod.precision = 5 context.view_layer.objects.active = obj bpy.ops.object.meshdeform_bind(modifier="MeshDeform")
Hello, not sure if this is still active, however due to some odd proportions of my character (such as a large head) the cage of the head tugs on the shoulders. I belove I have gotten each as septate as I can. Is this something a higher level of binding can fix or due I need to edit the cage more.
Hello. The mesh worked great when binding, the only problem now is that my mesh doens't move with the rig as it does in the video. The bones of my character are super stretchy and not like a normal rig. If I grab the hand control and try to move it, then it doesn't react correctly with the joints, rather it just stretches out. I've followed the video quite nicely, I'm not sure what's wrong with the way my model acts. Any help?
EDIT: I actually realized that the problem is not that the bones are working wrong, but rather that the IK's are NOT working.
Even after I adapt the rig to my character, the mesh deform cage still remain the same as before. It didn’t change according to the rig that I changed.
One difference I can't fix is in the video the cage has shaded faces so you can tell when the body goes outside the cage. My cage faces don't show shading, can't find the setting to turn that on. One workaround I turned Max Draw Type to solid from wire. Steve
Just thought I'd point out that instead of turning off the subsurfs (particularly if you have a number of parts) you could also use the simplify option in the Scene properties tab with the preview set to 0, couldn't you?
@Grady Pruitt:
Yes you can :)
hola JuanPablo, execelnte tu blenrig5, me a funcionado perfecto, pero en un personaje tuve que escalar todo el rig y el LATTICE_BODY me ha quedado deforme, en consecuencia la caja de deformación "BlenRig_mdef_cage" me queda deforme que debo hacer? mil gracias.
@Diego Yaya:
Cómo va? en el mismo panel de rigging y baking hay un botón que dice RESET DEFORMERS, eso va a resetear todos los lattices y debería arreglar el problema!
@Juan Pablo Bouza: muchas gracias por la pronta respuesta, efectivamente, solucionado.
Hi JP,
Is there a chance that when you cover customization to do a tail? It would help me out with my lizard biped! Also, it might be useful for any number of mythological characters.
Thank you for your rig, and for the great tutorials.
Hi @dbeach! Well, not in these videos, but at some point I was thinking of doing a biped lizard too, hehe. But I don't know when I'll do that. In case you want to add a simple FK or IK chain to your character, just add those bones and parent them to "pelvis_def", that should work. And about the mdef cage, just extrude the tail from my cage, maybe erase any influence that might have remained from the legs, and paint it with your tail bones. It shouldn't be harder than that.
But well, yes I hope I can do my biped lizard soon too :)
@Juan Pablo Bouza: Thanks very much, I appreciate it!
Hi Juan great add on. I tried to follow your instructions with a different model. The character has a skirt, long hair and a bow on her waist (actually it's Alice from Alice Madness Returns). I ignored the hair so far because you did the same and I will also ignore the bow for now but what do I do with the skirt? Should I model her real legs under the skirt and put them inside the mesh cage and than rigg her skirt later?
Hi @rapppc ! Advanced level question :p
What I usually do with skirts is to duplicate the mesh deform cage, so, you can have the original mesh deform cage to deform her legs only, and then, in the cage copy, you erase the lower legs and join the upper legs middle vertices to create a skirt like cage. So then, the upper body and skirt would use that mesh deform cage.
If the skirt is long, I usually build a skirt rig with some extra bones and weight paint the cage with those. This is because you may want the skirt to have a different range of motion and not follow the legs, but well, that's up to you.
Oh, one other thing, you might want to adjust the mesh deform cage to your model first, and then create the duplicate cage. The key thing here is that both cages should look more or less the same, otherwise you would get a very different deformation in the legs and in the upper body, and you would have intersections all over the place. Take a look at Victor, you'll see he uses 2 cages, one for the body and another one for the suite, and they both look alike.
Hope this helps!
@Juan Pablo Bouza: Will do that thanks. If I encounter any problems you will here from me again ;)
@rapppc: in all cases you have to use two mesh cages. the difference is that you just use the cage copy without any additional bones, the skirt will follow the legs. About doing an extra rig for the skirt, you should just create the bones you need and parent those bones to "pelvis_def".
In chapter 8 or 9, I'll do some customization and add some extra bones to the rig. But well, in your case, you should parent the structure to pelvis_def, which is in the deformation layer.
@Juan Pablo Bouza: Thanks for the very quick and useful response. I think in my case it would be nicer to have a separate skirt rigg cause I also would love to apply some cloth simulation to it. My rigging knowledge is very limited and it would be awesome if you could maybe do a quick tutorial on how to attach separate cloth riggs to your BlenRig once you have finished this series. Until then I will try your first suggestion with the two mesh cages.
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