Hi, my goal for class is to try to create an object (such as wire) that a user would be able to bend as he/she wishes. I am pretty new to realtime graphics and I know how to do this in an offline renderer.
How would one go about doing this in Panda3d…vertex skinning, etc?
Thanks in advance.
tell me how you made it for offline renderer and i might be able to help you put it into realtime rendering =)
Thanks Thomas for the effort…
Well in an offline program (such as Cinema4d, Lightwave, or Maya) I have made similar object by adding weight maps to their vertices or applying bones to their polygon structure through weighted vertex maps and the like.
Then I usually keyframed the “bones” in the mesh (joints, appendages, etc.) and could either then blend poses, use IK, or use forward kinematics to create an animation or a new pose.
I must say Panda3D has an awesome community…as I get more knowledgeable I look forward to contributing and helping as well
hm… you could just do the same with panda. making a wire, bone it and export it.
once loaded in panda you can manipulate the bones. if you just want to bend the wire at a single position it shouldnt be too difficult, just change the rotation of a single bone. if you want IK you have to implement it on your own. blender has a fine IK maybe you can get some ideas from there.
So it really comes down to having the mesh boned in say Blender…exporting it and at that point using Panda to control the bones like a puppet.
One question though how does panda recognize and control the bones?
Thanks again for your help
Thanks man…I havent looked at the wiki yet…totally forgot you guys here have that.
Much obliged