Realtime muscle system alpha version

Description

I build a rig that allows muscle deformation in real time applications as a part of my thesis in kajak university of applied sciences. I wanted to also wanted to study whether change in the polygon area could be used as mask to apply different texture maps.

The rig works in real time with most game engines and doesn't require additional coding or tools. The rig is also fast to apply to a new character. In the video character has only normal map. In the parts that character has checkered pattern textures, I'm blending 3 texture maps depending on the area increase or decrease of the polygons.

Polygons which area is close to original get yellow texture, polygons that squash get red texture and stretching polygons get green texture. I'm hoping to use these three textures to give the character wrinkles and pronounced muscle features where muscle expansion happens. Some areas work well but some need still work.

Rigging and animation by me. Model by Nick Zuccarello. ([http://www.nickzucc.blogspot.com](http://www.nickzucc.blogspot.com)) Downloaded from blendswap.com. the model came with blenrig animation system, blenrig was not used to in this example, this rig was done entirely by me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2KEWfpawvQ

Comments (33)

J
Jonathan Kim about 14 years ago

wow! impressive!

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daren about 14 years ago

The bones don't move and the images aren't packed.

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luismurciano about 14 years ago

Because the skeleton is in Rest Position, press the Pose Position Button and you can move it

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daren about 14 years ago

Ahh -- I see -- That's cool with the arms. Are you still working on this project? When do you graduate?

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vvaris about 14 years ago

Indeed the textures are missing, sorry about that, I will update the blend file next week and add the textures also.

O
Ohlsen almost 13 years ago

@luismurciano Thanks for this sir. Sounds simple and it is, but how much pain if you don't know it. My regards.

G
gavlig about 14 years ago

This is amazing! Hope you'll finish it and merge with the main blender branch. Wish you good luck with your thesis!

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vvaris about 14 years ago

Thanks! this is done just by using bone constraints and thus works in main branch. Nothing special here, just little rigging.=)

K
kdotart about 14 years ago

This is superb! Good luck on the thesis. I hope to see more. And thanks for sharing!

M
mnuss about 14 years ago

This is literally the next step up in cg animation Man, Thank You

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LswaN about 14 years ago

Wow, that is so cool, can't wait to look at the blend!

D
denfrost about 14 years ago

wow! very cool. Thank You Vvaris.

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gmodruls about 14 years ago

I needed this. Thx

L
lickylicky about 14 years ago

ok, i'm in pose mode, but it's still not working.

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vvaris almost 14 years ago

Thats because the armature is in "rest position" and not in "pose position". You can be in pose mode but not have the armature in "pose position". You need to select the armature go into Object data(by default on the right side, an icon with stick figure on it.) there under the skeleton press the "pose position" button.

W
wasa almost 14 years ago

Very nice. I haven't looked at the blend file yet but it looks like you're using 3 states for the muscles, with the 4th state added it should add a greater level of realism. Extended, Compressed, Relaxed, Contracted Mixing the 4 shouldn't be too difficult based on your work so far. Anyway thanks for the contribution, I might have to see about implementing that 4th state myself ^^

I
itsshah over 13 years ago

This is a very nice rig. I'm going to use some of the concepts in my own rigging.

N
Nalim over 13 years ago

Very cool rig and very cool model. About the license: am I allowed to use the rig (not the model) in a unity made game distributed in connection to advertising (like a blog or somesuch)?

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KebabKebab over 13 years ago

Awesome! But there's a little problem with the middle finger, the weight paint isn't good on it and it does crazy things when you try to move it.

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Zelgiust about 6 years ago

even with repaired weight it still does weird stuff. I don't get it :/

L
life over 13 years ago

gracias :) tanking very

Z
zingzong over 13 years ago

uhhh, tutorial please?

J
JMaines almost 13 years ago

It is not obvious which bones are for manipulating the animation of the mesh and which bones are supposed to be hidden. However, I liked the neck rig once I figured out which bone to move. I suggest you add custom bone shapes to the most important bones (the ones the animator should see) and hide the rest of the bones on various invisible layers.

A
anandaroopm almost 13 years ago

hi , your rig is quite impressive, I do appreciate how you have used bones and constraints to get better muscular deformations , but I still don't understand how you are extracting the polygon area informations and driving it to blend 3 different textures, can this method be used to create dynamic vertexgroup information too, this surely is exiting as it might help to drive blend shapes, would be very glad if you can explain the same in detail my email anandaroopm@gmail.com

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Shadahan over 12 years ago

any tuts on how to do it, after all those who want to start game development would need some tips ;D ty

K
khorseman about 12 years ago

It's a very nice rig. The "muscle" bone constraints are similar to a setup I have used several times, and even gives me a few new ideas for improvement of my own rig. But the textures are still missing from the file, so we can't see how the real magic happens. Any chance of you ever updating to include the textures?

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SantiWS almost 12 years ago

Amazing!!!

H
hanninbal over 11 years ago

i like it but not user friendly in terms of animation. Understandable if this is a prototype rig but if you were to send this to an animator he would probably send it back. Also, how would I apply it to another mesh, could I just click on (with automatic weights)? All in all very nice work. i can tell you took your time learning and rigging this. I am currently trying to make a muscular Model with each muscle expanding and contracting like the real ones should. this helps a lot for my paticular case.

B
body4489 about 10 years ago

gj

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Banderlog over 8 years ago

Nothing more stupid than that, I haven't seen in my life. Not running anything else. NOTHING AT ALL, COMPLETE ZERO, ABSOLUTELY. P.S. It's all good. Understand how to use it.

B
Banderlog over 8 years ago

It's all good. Understand how to use it.

K
kompgrafx over 7 years ago

awesome work, love it.

Y
yes_1698984 almost 4 years ago

what button is undo rest position

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