DeleD Community Edition

[tatts]

Hi guys, I though I would write a simple tutorial on mesh deformation. I know that animation with Deled for the moment is rather primative. But, it still works.

Now since Deled does'nt support vertex weights, some of you'se might be wondering... Ok how can I create limbs out of a single mesh that will bend properly when I animate it?

the samples I will demonstrate here is good for elbows, knees and finger type joints.

OK the first thing I did is create two cylinders with 8 sides and two segments.


for the object on the left, I left it as is. the object on the right, I took the center edge loop and angled it on a 45 degree angle (shown with the red line). Then I added a line of edges connecting the center vertex of the original edge loop (shown with the green line).


Next I selected the joint tool and added 3 joints to the first limb starting from the top of the arm to the elbow then the wrist. From here I deselected from the last limb so that I would start a fresh set of joints on the arm on the right. this I did the same as the first, from top to bottom.


In this next pic, what I did was assign the verts as shown by the colored lines and boxes. If your not sure how to assign them yet, it is very simple.
First select the assign tool in the geometry toolbox, on the bottom, put a tick in the joint radio button and select the top joint of the left arm. then put a tick in the object button and select the left object and click ok. this will now show the verts. Put a tick in the vertex button, now holding down the shift button, left click and drag the selection frame around all the top verts to select them and click ok to assign them. Next again put a tick in the joint button then select the center joint, after this instead of selecting the object button go ahead and select the vertex button and again holding down shift and frame select all the center verts and click ok to assign them. follow this same step for the last joint and set of verts.
For the next arm follow the exact steps as the first arm except this time assign the lines of verts to the appropriate colored boxes as shown in the pic.


from here your ready to animate the objects. So go ahead and select the animation function then select the rotate tool. Go ahead and select each joint to see how it reacts. If you have done this right your limbs shoulds react the same as the pics below.




Anyway this is pretty much simple stuff but is very useful, I hope it helps.

[chronozphere]

Clever trick.

[Jeroen]

Indeed, a very clever trick!
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[elementrix]

or:

http://pig-brain.com/tut02/tut02_02.htm



(for human joints)
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[tatts]

Actually I was going to post that link myself but figured it would be best to just to write a simple tutorial using deleds tools since the bone animation is new to deled.
Also, the problem with that tutorial is that for areas such as the shoulders and the butt, That tutorial expects that your animation system has some type of vertex weights. so really if your were to try and animate that type of geometry without weights it will not bend properly. Which is why I did not include it in this little tutorial.

[tatts]

After doing a little experimenting with that same tutorial here is what I get. In the first pic I left the elbow verts assigned to the top joint. I give bad bending at the elbow.

The second pic I had the vert assigned to the center joint, again no good.


And last, the third pic I had the verts assigned to both top and center joints. And once again as you can see it gives the same result as the first.


No matter how you do this, you'll always have bad bending at the elbow, which is why I left it as the way I did.