BlendWrapping

BlendWrapping is an example-based wrapping method that can handle extreme mesh deformations. It’s more robust and requires much fewer control points than standard Wrapping. This method uses a set of pre-existing wrapped mesh references provided by a user to analyze how different parts of the base mesh can be deformed, and thus, increase wrapping quality.

A standard Wrapping assumes that a base mesh can only be deformed in a uniform way. While this assumption works in many cases, it fails for areas like eyelids or lips where a surface can be significantly stretched in one direction but not in the other.

BlendWrapping overcomes this limitation. It can be used for different types of objects, but the most common application is facial expressions (FACs).

Suppose we need to wrap facial expressions of tens of different characters. Let’s assume that we have already wrapped and carefully cleaned up a set of facial expressions for one character. With BlendWrapping node you drastically simplify the wrapping of other characters by re-using information from previously made characters, even though the characters are very different.

BlendWrapping node looks at user-provided references to analyze how different parts of a face can be deformed. For example, by looking at the references it understands that eyelids can be stretched in the vertical direction much more than in the horizontal, and it doesn’t penalize vertical stretching during wrapping.

As a result BlendWrapping node reduces the need for cleanup to a minimum.

Tip

BlendWrapping is much more robust than standard Wrapping and produces much fewer artifacts, but because of its nature, it can’t fit the base mesh to the target surface as tight as Wrapping. It is recommended to use Wrapping or OpticalFlowWrapping after BlendWrapping.

Attention

BlendWrapping only works with models on a centimeter scale!

If the input models use a different scale, it will lead to poor wrapping quality and speed.

An easy way to check if a model using centimeter scale is to compare it with the base meshes from the Wrap gallery.

Reference Meshes

As already mentioned, BlendWrapping needs a set of examples provided by a user called reference meshes. All reference meshes should have the same topology as a the base mesh.

Reference meshes include:

Neutral Reference

is a neutral facial expression of a reference character. If this reference mesh has a different orientation or scale than the base mesh, you can turn on the Use Rigid Alignment parameter to automatically align it with the base mesh.

Blendshape References

is a set of blendshapes (FACs) of your reference character.

All Blendshape References should be aligned (stabilized) to the Neutral Reference and have the same scale.

It’s not mandatory that Blendshape References are decomposed by muscle groups as you would do for rigging. I.e. if Blendshape References contain an expression with both-eyes-closed, then there is no need to decompose it into left-eye-closed and right-eye-closed. The algorithm will still be able to wrap an expression with only one eye closed.

Retargeting

BlendWrapping needs to retarget the blendshape deltas from reference meshes to the base mesh.

If the Use Retargeting option is on, the BlendWrapping node will do it for you automatically.

If Use Retargeting is off, you need to extract blendshape deltas between Neutral Reference and Blendshape References and apply them to the base mesh using the Blendshapes node.

Rigid Alignment

Reference meshes can have a different orientation and scale from the base mesh.

If the Use Rigid Alignment option is on, the BlendWrapping node will perform the rigid alignment automatically using the set of points plugged into the alignment points input.

If Use Rigid Alignment is off, you need to rigidly align the Neutral Reference by orientation and scale to the base mesh. You also need to transform the Blendshape References with the same rigid transformation as was applied to the Neutral Reference.

Tip

Manual rigid alignment and retargeting may be needed if you want to use more than one character as reference meshes. In this case, you can extract blendshape deltas from each character and apply them to a single generic neutral mesh. Then you can provide the generic neutral mesh as a Neutral Reference and the blendshape deltas applied to it as Blendshape References.

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Inputs

floating geometry

Geometry Geometry to be deformed (a base mesh)

fixed geometry

Geometry Target geometry to fit to

point correspondences

PointCorrespondences (optional) A set of point correspondences between the floating and the fixed geometry

excluded floating polygons

PolygonSelection (optional) A set of polygons that will be excluded from the wrapping process, i.e they will not try to fit to the fixed geometry but will be deformed as rigidly as possible to match the rest of the mesh.

alignment points

PointsOnTriangle A set of points selected on either the floating geometry or the Neutral Reference (since they have the same topology).

If Use Rigid Alignment is on, the points will be used to rigidly align the Neutral Reference to the floating geometry by orientation and scale. Then the same transformation will be applied to each Blendshape Reference.

Output

Geometry Wrapped geometry

Parameters

Auto Compute:

if set, the node will be recomputed each time a parameter or input data is changed

Compute:

if Auto Compute is off, starts the wrapping process in the preview window

Neutral Reference:

the file name of Neutral Reference mesh

Blendshape References:

a list of file names of Blendshape References

Num Components:

defines how much information will be taken from the reference meshes. A larger value leads to better model flexibility but comes with a cost in terms of robustness and speed the better the wrapping quality, but at the same time, the bigger the computation time

Smoothness:

this weight defines how rigid the base mesh is

ICP:

this weight defines the strength of fitting of the base mesh to the target surface. Increasing it will lead to tighter fitting but can mesh smoothness can suffer

Control Points Weight:

defines the influence of control points on the wrapping process. Higher values result in the tighter fitting of control points to their targets

ICP Iterations:

number of Iterative Closest Point iterations

Coarse to Fine Iterations:

number of coarse-to-fine iterations. To explain in simple terms, on each iteration the algorithm breaks the base mesh into pieces and tries to fit each piece to the target geometry. With each new iteration, it breaks the base mesh into smaller pieces producing a tighter fitting

Sampling Radius Initial:

the size of base mesh pieces during the first coarse-to-fine iteration. Defined in centimeters

Sampling Radius Final:

the size of base mesh pieces during the last coarse-to-fine iteration. Defined in centimeters

Post-sampling Smoothing Iterations:

the number of smoothing iterations after sampling. Allows you to smooth out transitions between base mesh pieces

Use Rigid Alignment:

if set, aligns the Neutral reference to the base mesh (floating geometry) by orientation and scale. It applies the same alignment transform to the Blendshape reference

Use Retargeting:

if set, for each Blendshape reference it computes vertex deltas from the Neutral Reference to the Blendshape reference and adds the deltas to the base mesh (floating geometry) producing a personalized set of blendshapes