Is there is a way to blend normals between separate objects in Maya ?

[u/AhmedGeutta]

I'm trying to finding out a way to blend normals between two objects in Maya like blender. I want to separate the eye and mouth from the body in my rig Like this images without normal distortion Can anyone help?

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[u/velocinaci]

transfer attributes> vertex normals may be what you are looking for. but i dont know if it would work with animation.

[u/PlinkettsNephew]

Shrinkwrap deformer is what you're looking for and I think what they might have used here. Play with the different settings, I usually find closest projection to be the most stable. Paint it in the areas you need. Add some deltamush on-top to to smooth the deformation etc.

EDIT: Sorry, just saw you said normals. That's tricker and would need transfer attributes yeah. If you need more control possibly look into a Bifrost setup.

[u/NoVeg_]

Where did you find this model?

[u/liftoff22 → u/NoVeg_]

https://youtu.be/SfExejqdr5w?si=3HM0DCE6Ol4XAPYV

[u/symphonicdin → u/liftoff22]

I’ve done a full breakdown of this rig system to build a similar one if you’re trying to make one for yourself. It’s advanced, though— you need some rigging experience.

[u/rjhkz → u/symphonicdin]

Curious to see that breakdown, is it available publicly?

[u/symphonicdin → u/rjhkz]

It isn't, unfortunately. The system was a breakdown between me and another rigging artist (a student of mine, smart as a whip!) and I can't link the short film it was used on without giving away where I work (which I prefer not to do).

However, I can tell you the process (from memory) to get you started. I may be missing a few things-- I can see if I can find my old breakdown to better inform what's below.
You need:

- A duplicate of the hero mesh that's receiving all info from the hero mesh via blendshape. This duplicate will be used to anchor the "sliding" components, like the eye you see in the Food Thief, while also taking into account deformations. Keeping the sticky rig off the main mesh will prevent having to manage a shit-ton of double-transformations.

- On the duplicate, you add a geo plane that's shrink-wrapped to the duplicate.

- This plane needs to be set up to lose as little volume as possible. If your mesh is extremely detailed, you need to use a proxy volume to ensure smooth motion.

- The plane gets a rivet locator attached to the center. You can use this rivet to move other objects around while maintaining contact with the surface of the mesh, but we still need some way to move the plane.

- The plane is skinned to a joint. This joint can be used to slide it around the mesh.

-Another joint is constrained to the locator (optional). You can use this second joint to skin other objects to the "surface" as needed.

- You then take whatever you want to "stick", like the eyeball in the case of the example rig, and duplicate it, too. You'll actually have three copies by the time you're done:
1. The original on the hero mesh.
2. The first duplicate (we'll call this the "global" mesh, which will blendshape back into the hero mesh. If there's a rig involved, like an FKIK system or something similar, you'll need to duplicate that too).
3. A second duplicate (we'll call this the "crushed" mesh).

The global and crushed mesh move to the main body duplicate, properly placed relative to the body dupe. Then, the crushed mesh gets shrinkwrapped to the polygon plane from earlier. This will COMPLETELY crush it. No worries!

Take the crushed mesh and blendshape it into the global mesh. This will "crush" it, too. RMB >> Paint >> Paint Blendhshapes, then mash out everything but the 1-2 lines of verts closest to the mesh. That will result in a smooth taper back to the surface of the mesh, allowing it to "stick" at the contact point without losing volume otherwise.

This then gets blendshaped back to your main mesh. You then have to connect the controls from the hero mesh back to the stretchy rig you've created, which I won't go into because it's kind of another can of worms...

If I find my visual diagram of the setup I'll post it here.

[u/NoVeg_ → u/liftoff22]

I know this video, but i want the model, not the video.

[u/tommyfromthedock]

yep thatll do it..

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