1 Tutorials LightWave 3D How to Make an Animation Deform Cage Qua Jan 26, 2011 2:59 am
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by Dylan R. McIsaac |
Download source files here. |
This tutorial requires a base knowledge of LW character setup and some steps will be left out. Making a 100% weight map for the area that you want to have control of the points/polys to animate in layout. Mine was named "Face". Make two copies of this area in separate layers. second layer for the colored wire frame you see on mine. Deform
Later in Layout you can use Spreadsheet Editor assign the all the bones to the one weight map. Take a look at the scene to see how all the small bones of the face are parented to an under lying rig of Head/jaw/tongue/eyelids... Remember to use Spreadsheet Editor if you have any batch parenting or renaming to do. Cage For the Colored Wire frame that will act as a cage for a visual reference for those tiny bones you just made. Take that second copy of the weight map area that was made.
Now you are ready to go to layout. You can use it as the main means of deformation or as a tool. At any time a "Saved Endomorph" in layout to send the face shape to the Morph Mixer so you can start using sliders. Keeping wire frame object in a separate layer later in layout you can set its bone Options to "Use Bones From Object" and setting the rendering options that object dose not show up in the final render. Also I'v given my bones the same color as the mesh that they are under for selection purposes. Note: LightWave's limit is 4,096 bones per object. Motion Mixer Tip: To use Motion Mixer Make sure that no bones have periods or brackets in the name. If you have not already given all the bones unique names in modeler you can use Spreadsheet in Layout it has a cool function called Enumerate for renaming all the small bones of the face. |