How to deform areas of a character mesh according to the strength of its grayscale texture map?

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

I'm picking up Softimage after a hiatus of quite a few years so that makes me a n00b to this forum, but hopefully I'll get to contribute more as I pick it up again!

I was wondering if any of you, have any thoughts or ideas on how to solve a problem I'm stuck on:

Using a single, template character mesh I'm going to unwrap a grayscale texture map.
The real challenge I'm trying to solve is how to deform areas of the character mesh, based on the strength of its grayscale texture map?

That is, if you paint the texture map's belly and thighs dark black, then the mesh will deform to look like a fat man and if you paint the texture map's forearms and chest dark, the mesh will look like a body builder.

Is there any existing tools to enable this with enveloping or ICE?
Or does anyone have any ideas on how to create this?
The solution has to use the grayscale texture map as a basis for deformations.

Any help would really help get me started as I've been stuck on the solution for a while.

Thanks a lot!

[sonictk]

Um, I'm not sure, but it sounds like you're trying to basically make a displacement map? If so I'd just make the texture and a UV map for it, then connect it to a Deform > Push modifier.

I found this snippet on XSIBase, I think it applies to your situation?

You can use a texture to drive the "Push" deformer:

1. Select your object.

2. Property / TextureMap / TextureMap and select what mapping method you like. Select a black and white image. Rename the texture map property to something you can easily remember like "Test_Texture".

3. Select: Deform / Push

4. Select the "plug" icon next the Amplitude slider and choose connect.

5. You should see your texture map on the object's list. Select "Test_Texture" or whatever you called it.

6. Now when you slide the amplitude you should see the texture map displace the goemetry.

7. Freeze the object when you are done to make the deform permanent.

Note: Be sure the goemtry has plenty of polygons to handle the detail. Blur edges of the texture to smooth edges of the deform.

Hope this helps,
Ohmanoggin