detbear

Yes...... That's been my point from the start. Since there was no way to Snap cp's to cp's, I was inquiring if a bone could be snapped to a cp. Even that would be much more difficult than having a "snap to cp" feature though. This would allow for some new horizons.

O.K. Attached is a sample animation of 5 morphs that I've sweated out matching cps. Also the attached pics show the density of the base mesh. fun, fun, fun. WybooProductions_5_Morphs.mov William

Nancy is correct. Snap to Surface works much better in a Choreography. AND it works much better when you are working on top of an .obj prop. However, in this case, the mesh is so dense, you'd quickly lose track of the splines. A snap to cp feature the works similar to the "Snap to Grid" would be ideal.

UNFORTUNATELY, the snap to surface does not work inside a pose window. Well...maybe some, but it is flawed for some reason. I found that out a while ago. I've built 5 facial morphs so far. By hand. It Looks massively impressive because of the detail in the mesh. My retopo version with reduced splines just isn't the same. Plus...with my morph targets already done from the other place....it moves things very well once the cp's are lined up.

OK, Robcat....I sent over the files via the forum mail. Did you get it?

Actually these are two separate things in this thread. However....Largento is correct with the facial mocap issue. If there is a bone controlling the points, then a base face can drive the cps. Weighting is then not being created as it normally should. But rather.....as in Largento's Pirate....a separate character and it's rig is driving the shapes. The cp's need to be the same in the base model as in the target model. AS FOR the other issue in this thread, When you import the same mesh from another App twice. The first import is a neutral pose.....The second import has the same cps(because it is the same model in another App) but is posed with a blink, or a phoneme shape, or an eye brow raise...... The issue there is that there is no current way within A:M to blend these two shapes in a pose so that the neutral obj transforms into the second posed obj. You can do this by hand in a pose by bringing both models into the same model and the matching the cps in a pose....but that takes forever. ****The reason I originally started this thread was to try and find out if there is some way to snap cp's to cp's or bones to cp's in order to speed up that process.

I sent it a second time earlier. If you didn't get it, I'm not sure why?

Robcat, Did you get my e-mail(s)? Just checking so I can send it again if not. William

I managed to get 2 morphs done by hand. It took a bunch of time though.

I've seen this one: http://www.hash.com/ftp/pub/docs/TECHREF.pdf

Robcat, sent you an e-mail with a sample attachment.

Hey, Yes. That was one of my first solutions in trying to do things by hand. I've been working on it little by little after hours on my laptop though which only has V15 and no "snap to surface" feature. Still.....in order to get the cps into an extremely close position it requires "nudging" most cps with the "arrrow" keys most of the time.

Yes.....it would be a plugin for: 1. Advanced users....most of whom have knowledge of character usage in other apps. 2. Those who would like to be utilizing the un-matched features in Animation Master with external characters that they are going to be working with regardless. Personally, I think it would be a draw for A:M......But that's just me. I would certainly like to have this function with my characters from other Apps. Wish I could make this happen. I certainly understand the limits of the programmers for Hash. Nevertheless, it is a huge part of my wishlist.

Yes. That would do it for sure. Even if certain cps didn't get "snapped"...it would be easier to correct some by hand.... rather than the entire thing. WOW...that would be a great plugin because it would essentially transfer morph targets by a back door method. How difficult would a plugin like that be to create I wonder? Since I'm not a programmer, I have no idea how difficult that would be. Wonder if anyone would do something like that for pay? Although...I don't know if I can put it in the budget. I actually did one morph by hand and it looks soooo Good until I've been racking my brain as to how this may be accomplished easier.

It's O.K. Big Guy. I decided not to bog everyone down in something like that until I can get a more clear example up and running. I've got some face plates from morphs out of another AP. They have to be imported as separate models in A:M. Even though the cp's are the same(but moved to make the shape)....they have different names and there is no way to easily move the base model into the new shape. If you could snap the cp's of the base model to the cp position of the morphed model it woul make the process much more accurate and way less time consuming.

I'll just do it by hand I guess

Just do a search on the internet. There are a bunch of internet sites and videos on X-sheets. If you're looking for a more traditional style X-sheet, I think Don Bluth has some YouTube videos that incorporate X-sheet work. The "Dope Sheet" in A:M is like an X sheet in that it allows you to pre-define when the mouth sounds are taking place. Also, there are loads of books on traditional animation which all have some emphasis on the usage of X-sheets.

I threw things together pretty fast for those samples, but with time and patience, a weighted and rigged model would perform much better. I envision the potential possibility of a set of different faces with the same mesh that could receive retargeted animation from motion capture or hand keyed work. THIS DOES not require being able to snap bones to cp's, but that would help in the process. The second help that a "snap bone to cp" would bring has to do more with matching cp's on imported models into A:M. Most .obj's have heavy meshes as you all know. But working with them and morphing their shapes is not easy.

Here is an action Test Of the examples

OK..... I cannot express how completely primitive this is, but it is my weak attempt to explain One of TWO neat uses of being able to attach bones to cps. This is ONE of the expandable uses: A way to make a base mesh have "Re-targeting" abilities. Today I messed around with the "Group" constraint and found it to be quite successful. But you still have to place bones on each cp and group each bone to Here Goes! Let's say I have a base human mesh Head that I'm satisfied with. I rig it and get it all working with all the gidgets and gizmos so that it has a really great animating system/ weighted/ etc. Then I deside I want a second human character.But I want this one to have slight changes as we humans do. So I take the Head mesh with the same cps and re shape it into a new guy/ gal. I don't want to re-rig the thing, I just want to re-target animation from the first rig. I believe it's possible to get real close using a method similar to what I've attached here:

Hey. Well.... I guess if there's no way to snap bones to cps....there's no point. If I can, I'll try to get something basic together. But I don't have much time for it at the moment.

Because I want to expand the potential of each cp. Very hard to explain. I want the layered option to first drive a cp with a bone. Then all the other stuff you mention can be layered on top of that process. This potentially can expand the flexability of a cp's in a model in a "re-targeting way"

Hundreds

I have a dense mesh and I need to put a bone on each cp. It is very tedious to do by hand.

Thanks Robcat, Again..sorry for the re-post. So that means that each cp would need to be turned into a group prior to any bone snapping......Correct? Would be awesome to right click on a bone and have a "Snap to cp" option on the list. Once you click on that option, then you "left click" on the desired cp and it snaps the bone to the cp. Only the translation....not the rotate or scale. William