Hi Kurdad, this looks GREAT!!! I would have one feature request, probably possible:
Instead or as well as using reference other-meshes, to use own mesh shapekeys as reference. benefit is that you then won't have to worry about keeping a bunch of reference objects in the file. Other thing to consider is Lukas Tonne's work on nodal 'stuff' and how close it is - if it is not terribly close I would vote that we include this modifier assuming it passes the review process, very handy for rigging! Cheers, Bassam On Mon, 2014-05-26 at 19:09 -0500, k k wrote: > Hi > I have created a new modifier (welI I actually created more than a year > ago). I am trying to get it into the trunk because I believe it is very > useful and brings some convenience over the traditional way of doing morphs > in Blender. > > This patch was reviewed by Psy-fi and PlasmaSolutions (they might provide me > more feedback once they have time). It might still require additional nudging > however I feel like it is feature complete as far as the planned > functionality goes. The user welcome from last year and this was very warm > (based on forum replies) and it sounds like the blender users could enjoy > this feature. > > MorphTarget(codename) modifier`s real purpose is to let artists to use "an > actual mesh " as a morph target so that the user does not rely on implicit > shape keys data structures. The shape keys are very useful however due to > their exotic existence it does not give the user much play room. They are > incredibly useful, MTM tries to achieve additional functionality. > > Highlights > > One of the most important aspect of having a separate morph modifier is > that it can be stacked in the modifier list unlike the shapekeys. The > shapekeys deformation happens before anything else happens therefor the user > has no control over when the morphing should occur. > > It can use the previous mesh data that is streaming from the modifier stack > (both the target and the source) which is something the shape keys cant do > due to the way it works. I believe that it was a design choice not a > limitation. > > > You can see some basic demonstration be me below > > https://vimeo.com/95800023 > > https://vimeo.com/62574201 (from last year) > > > Terminology > > MTM > Morph Target Modifier > Source_A > The item that has the MTM > Target_B > The item that Source_A morphed into > > What Morph Target Modifier is not > > * This is not a replacement for shapekeys. > > * MTM does not attempt to limit or interfer with shapekeys > functionality. > > * MTM is not trying to duplicate functionality rather it is trying to > take advantage of other ideas in Blender > > * MTM is not a general purpose shape shifter (it does not handle > arbitrary topology atm). > > * MTM does not hold/create special data to do morphing. It merely > calculates morph vectors on the fly based on another mesh > > > Why use Morph Target Modifier > These are not the only cases where it is useful, however I am listing the > most important and the main advantages over the shape keys here > > * MTM is listed in the modifier stack therefor can be repositioned in > the stack whereas shapekeys happen before anything else. > > * Not only it can be stacked in the modifiers, it can also use the > calculated vertex positions from the previous modifiers. > Therefor it effectively supersedes shape keys if such functionality > needed. On the other hand the shape keys can only be used against the > original mesh data. The deformers are discarded naturally. > This is optional and can be selected in the panel (use_modified > flag) > > * MTM can also use the modifiers data from the Target_B which means > that it uses the final derived mesh for its purposes > For example you can apply other deformers like > Armatures/Displacement etc on Target_B and get that to be target morph data > > * One of the places this is very handy is when you want to modify your > item in another program (like Zbrush) and bring back the resulting mesh and > merge your changes. While there are other ways > to achieve similar things in Blender, I have found this way to be > the most convenient for my needs > > * MTM lets you treat your morph targets more like a palette. Once you > have all your target meshes, you can mix and merge changes from different > parts of those meshes or full parts from them into your original > mesh item using weights, and morphing. > The shape keys are implicit and you generally cannot see all at > once. There are ways to achieve that however I believe that MTM way is the > most elegant in this case. > > * MTM can be put in any position the modifiers stack however because > there is no artbitrary topology matching so it is not a good idea to use the > remesh modifier with it. > > * MTM can be used for corrective morphing in a limited way with rigs > atm (because it does not understand the pose space at this point). This is > planned > > * Finally like all the other modifiers, you can turn your resulting > mesh data into shapekeys if you wanted. So it is a great compliment to > underlying shapekeys workflow. > > > > What are the planned features > > * Arbitrary topology matching > > * Pose space morphing for corrective shaping/sculpting for rigging > purposes > > * Vertex Color, Vertex Weight and other mesh data morphing (Morphing > one meshes vertex colors to anothers, like blending) > > * Non linear blender, ie slerp > > * Sculpt morphing to see the changes in realtime on Source_A (if we can > get depgraph flag updates when in th sculpt mode). At the moment one has to > manually update, ie some ui changes. > > > > Links > > Old forum link: > http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?286279-Morph-to-target-mesh-modifier-is-ready-for-testing > > New forum link: > http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?337131-Updated-Morph-Target-Modifier-by-kkar&p=2648907 > > Patch page: > http://projects.blender.org/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=34635&group_id=9&atid=127 > > Wiki Page: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/MorphTarget_ShapeBlender_Modifier > > Diff Page: https://developer.blender.org/D542 > > > cheers > > > kursad > _______________________________________________ > Bf-committers mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers _______________________________________________ Bf-committers mailing list [email protected] http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers
