Topic: Mesh Flexing Problem

[ACDmvmkr]

I have been rigging a mesh subject with a control armature. After much experimentation and tweaking around, I have managed to get some pretty smooth results with the bending of the characters's limbs, arms & legs and such....for low angles of bend.

No matter how I play with, mix, and re-distribute the weight painting of each limb section & it's bones, above certain angles of the bend, they start to cavitate and form these ugly trenches in the subjects limbs (like under the armpits, at the tops of the legs around the hips, etc. I've tried adding compensating bones with angle copy & limiters, with competing influences applied, to try to minimize this, but I'm hoping somebody here has a better technique?

Are there settings built into Blender to prevent this type "crimping" of the mesh during these higher angles of bends?

Thanks

[kat]

Post a shot of the default pose your character is in when you're setting it up (it's "bindpose" - the position the character is in whilst you're weight-painting).

[nemyax]

This is usually mitigated by driven shape keys, but that might be useless in the game engine you're rigging for.

[ACDmvmkr]

- default position, with both influences highlighted....






- low angle of bend....






- more severe bend angle, notice how the trench forms as the vertices
get driven into the opposing sides of the bend surface. I can't seem
to eliminate this trend as the angle gets sharper. I was hoping Blender
might have a setting that changes the way it handles the cross
interpolations (or whatever it might be called) and save me from having
to create & tune dozens of intermediate control bones....

[kat]

Ah yes, you need to be less 'aggressive' with your vertex group assignments, meaning you need to allow/include for a larger areas of deform for the main groups.

[ACDmvmkr]

That's what I was afraid of....as that distorts the shape of the legs & hips all the way down.

Oh Well, guess it's time to create a "bloomin' onion" of bones!.....