Deforming mesh to fit reference points

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I need to adjust a mesh object to correspond to the given points of reference. I want to find the repeatable, semi-automatic solution to deform my mesh so it matches given points.

What I have is mesh with marked vertices as a boxes (source) and target points (as spheres), which corresponds to the source points. Target points have slightly different orientations and distances.

I already tried with FFD box, and results may be ok, but not satisfactory. 

I can imagine Poly Edit would also be a solution, but it's also manual work.

I tried with Skin modifier, using boxes as a bones, but no luck. Maybe I need investigate more.

I would appreciate any hints.

Example: The mesh could be a head, reference points (for example from pictures) are set to landmarks like nose tip, ears, eyes, etc. I want to deform the head to be as close as possible to the target points.

[patrick.schock]

Hello @Anonymous,

thanks for your post! Can you explain a bit more about your use case? As I understand from your description, you want to deform a (highpoly?) mesh to given reference points. How many points you want to use and how should the output look like? A bit more explanation would be helpful.

From the information I have, I could think of Retopology techniques like in this video: Retopology Tools in 3DSMax,

but I'm looking forward to get more details about this project.

Best regards,

Patrick

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your response.

The problem I have can be explained with 2D face image as below:

I have the left side image, and I have marked some easy to find landmarks - black dots. Then I get blue points from a real image that corresponds to the points on the the left image. Now I want to adjust the left image according to the blue points, so the drawing matches the picture, like the image on the right side. The reference points should overlap as close as possible, other part of the model should be interpolated using some distance weighting functions perhaps.

Of course, the problem I have is in 3D and the model (170K faces) is quite complicated. Number of reference points are not limited.

The image I posted above was made with "Puppet Warp" tool in Photoshop. 

I have checked the video you posted, it presents some nice techniques, but I don't think it would work here. 

Thank you for any ideas!

Best regards,

Kamil

[shawnolson]

If I properly understand your question, I believe you are simply wanting to move geometry from the blue dots over to the black dots. You can do this with the Shift Brush in the freeform tools in Max. See these tools in the Graphite Toolbar.

I hope this helps.

Note that there are options for the shift brush that allow you to influence all vertices in an infinite projection or just from a spherical radius.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your reply.

I know the basics of the shift tool, however it's in fact manual work. I was looking for something at least semi automatic, something like morph? Also, the object is 3D and shift tool would affect front and back vertices, isn't it? What is more my object has interior, which also has to be adjusted according to the reference points. 

Nevertheless, I will definitely give a try shift tool, because I might just need more practice, but I will still be looking for another approach. 

Thanks again!

[shawnolson]

You are correct that the shift tool, by default, will affect front and back vertices. However, if you go into the shift tool options (I linked to above), you can set it to use a spherical radius to limit the effect to only vertices within that radius.

[Anonymous]

Thank you, the radius limit option (new for me) is useful indeed! However, it is still quite complicated to adjust the mesh this way. I would appreciate more ideas. 

[shawnolson]

Thanks for your feedback.

I don't have a solution off the top of my head beyond using the Shift tool. If/when I have something more conducive of your request, I'll certainly share it.