ShapeDeform
The ShapeDeform node allows you to do procedural particle based deformation or 'skinning' operations on meshes. The basic idea is to control vertices of a mesh via particles that are nearby. This operator allows to create some interesting effects when used with joints affecting vertices.
Operator Inputs
ON - (Bool) This input data stream determines whether the operator is considered 'on' or 'off'. You can connect other operators to this input channel such as a Bool Helper to activate/deactivate the whole operator.
Time - (Time) This input data stream is used to define the local time for the operator when the user wants to override the default system time.
Particle - (Particle) connect particles to this input which should be affected by ShapeDeform.
UI Control Parameters - those input data streams are the equivalent of the UI controls, keep in mind that there is no visual indication that an operator is connected to any of those inputs! It might be needless to adjust a value if it gets overwritten by a connected operator.
Operator Outputs
No outputs available for this Node
Rollout Menu
Target - from this drop down list you may choose any particle group to act as the Target object for any of the ShapeDeform operations.
Include Subgroups - check this option to include Sub Groups
Operant - from this drop down list you may choose any particle group to act as the operant object for any of the ShapeDeform operations.
Include Subgroups - check this option to include Sub Groups
Type - sets the type of deformation method. Options are:
Velocity - when selected, the velocity of a particle will be transferred onto the nearest vertex.
Dent - choose this option to make a one time dent into the mesh. When re-deform is checked multiple denting will happen.
Spherical - select this option to create a spherical deformation on the mesh surface per particle nearby a vertex position.
Nearest Link - this will always use the nearest vertex for deformation purposes.
Detect Radius - defines the detection radius to find the nearest vertex to a particle.
Impact Threshold - sets the maximum distance traveled towards a vertex to calculate the effect.
Impact Radius - increase this value to spread out the effect type over multiple vertices of the mesh. Warning! The bigger this radius the longer the processing time will be.
Intensity - defines the force used to move vertices along with the particles. The higher this value the more impact or influence particles will have.
Max Particles - sets the maximum amount of particles to take into account per incident (particle-vertex effect).
Side - defines what side of the surface is affected by the particle. Options are:
Both - check this option to have the particles effect vertices from both sides of the surface
Inside - choose this option to only affect surfaces by particles, pointing away from the camera
Outside - this option will only affect surfaces pointing towards the camera
Re-Deform - check this option to ensure that an already deformed mesh is re-deformed again when new particles come close.
Auto Break - check this option to split off or break affected surface triangles from the mesh.
Threshold - sets the minimum distance at which a surface should break off.
Detach - when a particle group is selected, the broken off faces are not deleted. Faces marked as broken off, will become a new born particle stored in the selected group.
