"Rune" wrote:
> I have thought of a feature that would deform objects by several
> user-specified regular transforms, each weighted by a 3D field
> in space.

I thought this method could work for meshes only, since it would do moving
of vertices.

The idea was that each vertice would be transformed by an average of several
regular transform matrixes. The weights of the different matrixes in a given
point would be determined by the values of their fields in that point.

I have though of two field-types: Absolute and relative.

For the absolute type, if for a given point one field had a value of 0.1 and
another field had a value of 0.3, the first field would contribute 10% of
the transformation matrix, while the other field would contribute with 30%.
The remaining 60% would be contributed by the index matrix (a matrix that
doesn't do anything).

For the relative type, if for a given point one field had a value of 0.1 and
another field had a value of 0.3, the first field would contribute 25% of
the transformation matrix, while the other field would contribute with 75%.
The index matrix would never contribute with anything.

The absolute type would be useful when you want one part of your object to
be deformed, and the rest to stay undeformed.

The relative type would be useful for things like bone systems, where every
part of the mesh is deformed, and the original locations of the vertices
should not have any affection at all. In this case you would want to make
sure that your entire mesh is enclosed by the fields.

I still don't know what would be the best way to define the fields with.
Patterns, blob-like fields, maybe both options, or maybe something entirely
different?

I personally think blob-like fields would be best. Remember that possible
patterns would not deform the mesh directly, but only be used as weights for
some linear transformations. Therefore I think the usefulness of complicated
patters to control this is rather limited.

Rune
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