relaxSurface deformer 1.0.1 (maya plugin)

Deformer for relaxing deformed polygon geometry

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License Type:

Freeware

File ID:

4366

File Size:

375.6 KB

Created / Updated:

Dec 13, 2006 / May 15, 2007

Owner:

tommiTissari   More free downloads from this user See users marketplace items See this users portfolio Send a Private Message

Platforms:

windows

Downloaded:

3,991

Maya:

6.x, 7.x, 8.x

Tags:

The relaxSurface deformer can be used (at least) for two purposes...

1.Modeling tool
When the averageTopology attribute is checked on, you can even out the topology of your mesh by using the paint attributes tool. While the vertices spread out evenly as you paint, the overall shape of your object remains (pretty much) unchanged.

2.Rigging tool
When the averageTopology attribute is checked off, the deformer can be used to improve the result of the skinning of your character by emulating the stretch and compression of skin. The way it works is that you define a mesh that represents the relaxed state of your character's skin, and the deformer tries to make the character's surface resemble that relaxed state while maintaining its shape. For example when applying the deformer after a skinCluster, by default it will use the intermediate object as the relaxed state.


To determine how to relax the surface, the deformer uses for each vertex a certain kind of weighted average (barycentric coordinate) of its neighbouring vertices' locations (and simply the average when in averageTopology mode). This method is fundamentally a bit flawed, which you can see by making a torus and deforming it overall in the averageTopology mode; the vertices slide towards the inside of the torus. But in most cases it works quite well.


The deformer is terribly slow by default, but you can speed it up considerably by increasing the value of the skipFormRestoration attribute (as of version 1.01).


Currently supports only polygon meshes.

Requires Maya 6.5 or higher. Not for 64Bit Maya versions yet (still don't know how to compile, sorry).

Source code included.
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