How to edit multiple objects at once?

[Anonymous]

I have a character with interchangeable heads.  I have one body object and three head objects.  I need to change the shape of the neck to fit a new design.  How can I edit the necks of all four objects at once to keep the seams consistent?

[faline.custodio.da.silva]

@Anonymous 

Thanks for posting!

How dense is the geometry? This could be tricky, I was thinking possible blendshapes after converting one head object but I think it would depend on the complexity.

[tj.galda]

Hey there,

One easy way to do this is a few steps:

1) first get all your various heads ready.  These will be the different heads you want to keep

2) connect them to your original head using a blendshape:

deform -> blendshape

Now you're able to deform the original head to look like the various heads:

3) Ok, now zero out all your blendshapes and duplicate the original head. 

4) Take this duplicated head and model the neck changes you want to make.  In our case I did something crazy:

5) now connect the new neck to the original head with a second blendshape, but this time use the "parallel" mode under the advance tab in the blendshape options:

Doing so you'll get a second blenshape node on the original head:

6)  you can dial each blendshape on for the first set of heads one at a time, and you can keep your new shoulder on in your second blendshape at the same time:

So you'll see in this picture I have the new crazy shoulder now combined with my super cool tall head guy.

7) Once you have each combo ready, simply duplicate the mesh and delete the history on the new mesh.  That will give you the new heads with the changes made all identically.

There are another 3 or 4 different ways I can think of doing this, so this isn't the only way by any stretch.  I do know we did this exact method back on a tv show I worked on in the late 1990's so I know it works (even if it's old).

Hope that helps,

tj