Transmographier Modifier
The
Transmographier is a modifier that aids in the process of creating
morph targets for meshes (poly and trimesh). Rather than cutting,
mirroring and welding the mesh as with the Symmetry modifier, it
matches positions of existing vertices across the specified axis, so
vertex ordering is never changed and morph targets continue to work.
To do this, it needs a
reference mesh: this reference needs to symmetrical across the desired
axis in both vert count and vertex position. It does not need to be a
perfectly symmetrial mesh but pretty close to it, especially in areas
with high vertex density to avoid the wrong vertex pair being found -
matching is by closest vertex and not absolute position so there is
some tolerance for asymmetry.
The top pick button is
what you use to pick your undeformed symmetrical mesh. The mesh you
pick must have the same vertex count as the mesh you have applied this
to - currently it does not filter for count, likely for version 1.01.
Cache Target will not
reload the undeformed mesh at each operation. Typically this will be
left on. Update will update the cached undeformed mesh. Note that the
cache survives saving and loading your scene.
Operation - mirror will
mirror the positions of vertices from one side of your mesh to the
other.
Operation - Flip will
swap the vertex positions from one side to the other - mirror axis
negative/positive make no sense for this mode and are disabled.
Operation - Reset will
move the verts to the undeformed meshes positions. Most useful when in
SubObject mode when only certain vertices, say those accidentally moved
and so interfering with morph targets, are to be reset.
The Mirror Axis controls
enable xyz and negative/positive mirror directions.
Axis Offset allows you
to modify where the mirror plane exists in relation to the object;
usually it is best to have your pivot (and object offset) zeroed to the
center of the object, bbut this allows you some flexibility in this
area.
Display + Size: these
control whether the plane and direction of the mirror is displayed, and
the size of the plane/direction arrow.
interactivity - Constant
update: with this off the result of the operations are cached. If you
want to model underneath the Transmographier modifier turn this on else
the Transmographier will not update with your changes.
Options - Ignore SO
selection: if you are in SO vertex mode the selection (including soft
selections) is used to affect the result. If you are modelling below
the Transmographier you will not want this, so turn this on to have it
ignore any SO mode travelling up the stack. To reset small sections of
your mesh (for fixing targets) you will want this off.
Options - Align Center
Verts: this option will re-align the verts detected as center verts (on
the axis of the mirror/flip operation) back to the plane of the mirror,
leaving the other transforms alone. Generally you will want these
centre verts to not move in the axis of the mirror.
Options - Base Selection
Masks (+ invert): this option uses the vertex
selection on the reference node to mask the result - specifically for
situations where you might have a symmetrical head with asymmetrical
hair as part of the same mesh, just select the head in vertex mode on
the base node and turn on the option in the UI.
Limitations - No support
for Splines or Nurbs. Supported
types are TriMeshes, (ie regular editable mesh stack), PolyMeshes, and
PatchMeshes. Poly and Tri can be freely mixed if vertex counts are the
same.
Demonstration Quicktime - 3.6 megs. Just a quick demo - note that the vertex
ordering is not changed for any operation so morphability is maintained.
Transmographier is not
freeware
For licensees of
RPManager and RPManagerLite, commercial or personal use is freely
permitted. For everyone else there is a US$20 fee for commercial use
per site. Personal, ie non-commercial use, is permitted without
payment.
There are no licenses,
limited/demo versions or what-not, just this button here:
which will get you a
Thanks! email and the knowledge you are both supporting tool developers
and legitimately using the plugin, and this link here:
Download
Transmographier for 3dsmax 5, 6-8, 9, 2008, 2009- version 1.1
32/64 bits installation options are available for R9/2008/2009
Transmographier
for 2010 is available as zipped plugins - copy the unzipped plugin to
your plugins directory:
3dsmax2010 32 bit
3dsmax2010
64 bit
3dsmax2012 32 bit
3dsmax2012
64 bit
3dsmax2013
64/32 bit
3dsmax2015/2016 64
bit
3dsmax2017 64 bit
3dsmax2018 64 bit 3dsmax2019 64 bit 3dsmax2020 64 bit
3dsmax2022 64 bit
3dsmax2023 64 bit
Commercial users: test
it out for 30 days before you pay - while every effort will be made to
make it bug-free and stable, there are no guarantees made and no
responsibility taken by the developer for anything this plugin does to
your scene(s). This is being used in production so it can't be all bad.
Installation
instructions
Run the
Transmographier installer, which puts it into your plugins directory
and then restart 3dsmax.
It is a modifier, so will appear in the modifier stack.
Contact
bugs@rpmanager.com with any bug info. Scene files demonstrating
problems are much easier to troublshoot.
64 bit 3dsmax9 version
to come soon.
Credits: Transmographier was written by Grant
Adam, with input from BlendShape Maestro Avi
Goodman.
|