Making Animation Easy

How to make anything move or change over time and space? The search for solutions: Where does it hurt?

• Capture reference.
• Easily bring in references and animatics.
• Working with only one timeline.
• Visualise waveforms.
• Stop using the cursor and start using the sculpt grab tools.
• Get rid of rigging Ui pickers (oh my gaaad, that so 1999)
• Keep animators in the viewport and the timeline.
• Onion Skinning and Pinning keyframes for reference
• Motion Path could actually be the cure for FK and IK. At the moment animation in 3D is like driving a road under a car. Motion paths would be like driving a car along the road.
• Selection is decision-making. When it comes to animation we want to filter this down and keep it simple. How to simplify (This is a big topic) ?
• Rotating from different positions.
• Lock it down. Is snaping a solution? Can we animate with the 3D cursor?
• Limited keyframing. Do we really need to keep auto/baking keys and simplifying keys? All of this could be built in and maybe ties in with motion paths.
• Compatability - How to send animation data to other software? Do we really need to? What about Games? .abc & mesh caching is that a solution?
• NO IK & NO FK - What we really want is straights and curves. Motion? Snaping? 3D Cursor? Locking/ Pinning.

Vertex Groups potential way of animating.

Vertex Groups to simplify the process of mesh and rig switching frame by frame are a potentially practical approach.

Edge Boundaries of the Facemaps snaping to volume. Vertex Groups As Selection handles. Vertex Groups Switching Duplicating topology and switching geometry out. Vertex Groups Rigging collection switching. Vertex Groups can behave as sticky points objects to be attached to and move along with those points

1. Standardize Mesh Regions: Facemaps, you can create standardized regions of the mesh-like "left_eye", "mouth", "nose", etc. When swapping out a mesh, the tool can then use these Facemaps to align the new mesh correctly, ensuring features match up.

2. Automate Weight Transfer: Facemaps can assist in targeted weight transfer. For instance, if a Vertex Groups defines the "left_arm" area, weights can be transferred specifically to that area from an old mesh to a new one, ensuring more accurate deformation.

3. Facial Animation & Expression Swaps: For characters, Facemaps can be incredibly useful for facial animation. An animator could quickly swap out different facial expressions by selecting predefined Vertex Groups and applying them to the character, creating an instant change in expression.

4. Rig Attachment Points: Vertex Groups can also define points where additional rigs or rig parts should attach. For example, if a character has a Facemaps for "wings", a wing rig could automatically be attached at that position when the animator chooses to add wings.

5. Interactive Interface: Imagine an interface where the animator simply clicks on a visual representation of the character's Vertex Groups (e.g., a clickable face layout) and chooses from options like "swap to angry expression" or "attach horn rig".

6. Guided Weight Painting: Vertex groups can act as a guide when weight painting. If an animator or rigger wants to tweak weights, the Vertex groups can highlight the region they're working on, making the process more intuitive.

7. Auto-Adjustment: If an animator swap to a mesh with slightly different proportions, the Vertex groups can help in auto-adjusting the rig to fit the new mesh correctly, especially for facial rigs.

8. Seamless Transition: With Vertex groups defining regions, transitions between different meshes can be smoother. For example, if a character is morphing from one form to another, Vertex Groups can ensure that the eyes, mouth, and other features transition seamlessly.

Vertex Groups can be a powerful tool in simplifying the process of mesh and rig swapping by creating a more intuitive, visual, and standardized way to work with different mesh regions. They can act as a bridge between the artistic intent of the animator and the technical requirements of the rigging system. Combining Facemaps with a user-friendly tool or add-on could make the process even more streamlined for animators.

Blender's Curve Modifier

Curve Modifier is a powerful tool that deforms a mesh along a curve. This modifier is often used in animation to create non-linear and more organic transformations. Combining this with bones and Facemaps can indeed unlock interesting opportunities.

How Facemaps and curves could work together:

1. Curve-Based Bone Manipulation: The most straightforward application is to use curves to drive the deformation. This is especially useful for creating complex, smooth movements. For example, instead of having a series of bones for a spine with individual rotation controls, a single curve for the spine. If there is a need bones could follow the curve. Bones could be parented or hooked to the control curve. Keyframing vertex data allows for the animation process to be even more simplified and lightweight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBvRKpuPjIo

1. Flexible Facial Rigging: For the facial animation, Vertex groups can define regions of the face, and curves to drive the movement of those regions ie. a smile or frown. Alternatively, Artist Animate sculpted the mesh while mesh shrinkwrapped to a based model that could also be deformed from the inside out using other objects that could be sculpted and keyed. Updates we need to make available to Shrinkwrap modifier, Curve modifier & possibly the sculpt mode for this to be taken advantage of.

2. Advanced Expression Control: The Curve modifier can also be used to create more advanced facial expressions by allowing bones in the facial rig to follow custom paths. This can create more nuanced and unique expressions. Vertex Groups can help to isolate the influence of these deformations to specific parts of the face.

3. Procedural Animation and Rigging: Curves can also be used procedurally to generate animation or rigging effects. For example, you could create a setup where a wave-like motion is sent down a curve, which drives the movement of bones aligned to that curve, resulting in an automatic, wavy motion of a character's appendage.

4. Simplified UI with Curve Controls: Curve Controls could be added where animators can simply draw or modify curves directly to animate the facial features or other regions defined by Facemaps.

5. Pen Tool or Curve sculpt tool driving the animation keyframing the points of the curve

The combination of Curve Modifiers, bones, and Facemaps could provide a more organic and intuitive way of manipulating and deforming characters. By having these systems interact with each other, you create a system that's both powerful and user-friendly, giving artists the control they need in a straightforward manner. This way, they can focus more on the creative aspect of animation rather than dealing with the complex technicalities of rigging.

Blender's Weight painting

The idea of integrating weight painting, curves, and Facemaps together offers a new level of control over deformation and mesh manipulation. Let's explore how this could work:

1. Localized Weight Painting with Vertex Groups: Vertex Groups can serve as a guide to confine the area for weight painting. For instance, if you have a Vertex Groups of a character's arm, you could restrict weight painting to this specific region, ensuring you don't unintentionally influence other parts of the mesh. This is extremely helpful in managing complex characters with many overlapping parts.

2. Curve-Controlled Weight Distribution: You could use a curve to control the weight distribution across a particular Vertex group. By adjusting the curve, you're effectively controlling how weights are distributed across that specific region of the mesh. This can allow for very fine control over deformations and how they taper off across a region.

3. Dynamic Weight Adjustment with Curves: Curves could also be used to dynamically adjust weights. Example: a character's arm is bending, a curve could be used to adjust the weights of the vertices along the bend to create a more natural deformation.

4. Interactive Weight Painting UI: In a potential tool UI, you could have an interactive representation of the Vertex Group where you could draw a curve directly on it to control the weight distribution. This can provide a more intuitive and visual approach to weight painting.

5. Curve-Driven Morphing: For more advanced applications, Keyframe the vertices, and curves driving blend shape or morphing effect, with weights controlling the strength of the Shape key for different parts of the Vertex Groups. Useful for creating localized effects like a bulging muscle during a strong movement.

The fusion of weight painting, curves, and Facemaps provides a robust and flexible system to control mesh deformations. It would let artists manipulate weights in a more visual and intuitive way, reducing the complexity of weight painting and making the process more artist-friendly. The aim would be to have a toolset that enhances the artistic control over character animations in Blender.

Animation Selection:

Rig Pre-selection feedback on hover

• Bounding box
• Color

Keyframe Selection

• Significant color change on key selections

Full Body IK with & without Curves + Geo

Ragdoll with & without Curves + Geo

Physics with & without Curves + Geo

• Demo of https://github.com/artellblender/springbones/blob/master/spring_bones.py

Muscle with & without Curves + Geo

Image-Based Motion Capture

• Setup Tuts already done in blender

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7nNO3FLkLU&ab_channel=GadgetWorkbench
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRcxqPUBr6Q&ab_channel=GSFXMentor