Maya SOuP BMesh vs Blender Skin Modifier
Jimmy Gunawan compares Maya’s SOuP BMesh against Blender’s Skin Modifier.
As you knew already Maya recently got BMesh via SOuP plugins allowing us to do quick meshing based on Joint similar to ZSphere inside ZBrush.. While on the other side, Blender Open Source 3D is soon to be upgraded to version
2.542.64 and officially gets the awesome Skin Modifier from Nicholas Bishop (!)NOTE: ZSpheres as the original of this method of meshing is still cool. But for me, I actually prefer having it inside Blender or Maya.
To test the power of both BMesh and Skin Modifier, I made this funny character (Sadako aka Samara from The Ring) earlier today, just less than an hour of work inside Blender.
And:
Final verdict
Both SOuP BMesh and Blender Skin Modifier handle the creation of Mesh really quite well. Although I must say that Blender Skin Modifier has few more tricks and options that make it the winner. I would do more modeling inside Blender this way, ala ZSpheres.
Although I may have to say that SOuP BMesh also has its advantages being inside Maya because it is a node based system and really can be used for all kind of procedural effects. SOuP BMesh is fairly new and I bet it can be made even better.
I think to improve SOuP BMesh, it needs the “Loose” and Smooth.
On the other hand, Blender Skin Modifier has been in development for a while, it was quite fast development and consistent. The fact that Skin Modifier is now available for anyone inside Blender Open Source 3D software is just brilliant.
Link
“[…] I made this funny character (Sadako aka Samara from The Ring) earlier today, just less than an hour of work inside Blender […]”
Did Autodesk take the BMesh Code from Blender or what?
No, BMesh is just an overloaded word. AFAIK the ‘B’ in Blender’s BMesh just stands for Blender. The paper that the skin modifier is based off of is called “B-Mesh: A Fast Modeling System for Base Meshes
of 3D Articulated Shapes”, so the ‘B’ stands for base. I assume the BMesh SOuP code is based off that same paper.
“..soon to be upgraded to version 2.54…” should be 2.64 ;)
Indeed ;-) I’ve updated the text.
Is the skin modifier available in the official version of Blender now?
<> typo? it’s 2.64…
Yup Skin modifier is awesome, I made a tutorial a while back for anyone interested, give it a go, it’s fun :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GdT1-Ynmpc&list=UUYSBxohiBmCsiGBRTqkG7tA&index=2&feature=plcp
Thank you for this! trying to find out what;s skin modifier
This is actually something I saw a while ago but didn’t think it was ever released! I love sneak attack features when they’re awesome!
For the basic outline it works but at some “spezial” character features it or me failed. Mirror modifier for example happens to not always make it mirrored if to many “bones” are at one place so that got a one side non manyfold mesh i believe it is what it looks like.
Its great for creating a basemesh, fast. If you want details try to sculpt it.
This “SADAKO” Mesh is interesting.
The idea to try and make a “bmesh” plugin for maya was mine. I was originally just going to make the plugin as a start to the TD reel I want to make to be more appealing to employers in the film industry, but since most of the code and the thinking was already done for me by Justin Ardini (who released his implementation as source code for a standalone application) I decided it was better to make it a publicly available tool. So I sent my port to the SoUP time who have been working on it ever since. Here’s my original test:
http://youtu.be/-f3nwmGtHtk
hmmm .. ok … but you realize BMesh is actually the entire underlying mesh structure in Blender now, right? porting BMesh to any other app would really require a complete re-write of their mesh structure.
What has been “ported” is bone skinning, not BMesh. It is extremely disingenuous to call it BMesh. BMesh is Blender specific. I beg of you to rename this port, as it is merely something that comes FROM bmesh, and is not bmesh itself.
You are incorrect. The skinning paper was titled B-Mesh. Blender doesn’t own the letter ‘B’.
um .. Maya recently got BMesh??? O.0 … i thought “BMesh” stood for “Blender Mesh” … WTF is Maya doing with Blender Mesh?? LOL