(video example) Vertex/Bone Angle Point constraint tool.

[Soil Snooze]

I made this video to demonstrate what I am trying to say:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ec64-8h72Ow

The first 3D program I ever bought was called Animation:Master. It had a feature called "Smart Skin" that allowed the artist to define the location and curvature of each point based on the angle of the selected bone. For instance, I could build an arm that consisted of an upper arm bone and a lower arm bone and attached them to the desired vertices. I would then add Smart Skin to the lower arm bone. Although the program allowed me to change the mesh for any angle, and as many angles as I desired, I would normally just bend the joint to 90% and adjust the mesh until it looked correct at that angle. The software would automatically and smoothly adjust the points as the bone was manipulated between each designated angle.

I realize this is possible using switch layers with Interpolate sub-layers selected, but that is nowhere near as convenient as setting up the lines to adjust automatically based on the bone angle.

I am sure in a 2D program that this type of feature would be so much easier to develop and use then in a 3D program. It is something I am sure a lot of people would be able to make use of in many ways.

If there is already a script or mod for this, or a way to do it that I haven't discovered, I would love to learn about it.

Thanks for your time.

[Rai López]

Hmmm... as far as I know this could be the most closer thing i have seen around the forums, but I'm not sure if the work is finished cause I discovered the thread not too much time ago and, although I marked it as "very interesting/exciting", I have had no the time to "study" as it could deserve, yet... But definitely, if you are interested in scripting stuff, it seems enough interesting to keep you amused for a time


EDIT: Oh, the link, of course... viewtopic.php?t=12737&postdays=0&postor ... ho&start=0

[Víctor Paredes]

Couldn't it be done using the negative frames?
I mean, it is impossible right now, but maybe an script could detect which points have been keyframed on a negative frame and which bone is rotated. Then in positive frames the script could adapt the point movement based on those two dates.
You could set as many angles as you want want on negative keyframes. That would be great and, to me (somebody who don't know much about scripting) sounds posible.

It would be similar to poses script, I think.


PD: If it could relationate point curvature to bone angles it would be awesome to a technique I just discovered some days ago.
Arm/Leg with negative curvature
viewtopic.php?p=85328