[Released] WIP: "Wearable Asset" animatable CUA pinning

[GossamerVR]

update: this asset is released in public beta

Wearable Asset (beta) - Plugins + Scripts -

2.0 Update: CUA Collision not yet supported, so the plugin will automatically disable CUA collision for now. ------ Hello Darlings, TLDR: This is a plugin that lets you 'parent' an asset to a joint tightly, while also animating it at the same...

hub.virtamate.com

Hello, Darlings!
TLDR: This WIP plugin is to pin CUAs to a joint with parent recall and animation support. This thread is for updates and feedback before launch.

I am a person driven to create fantastic experiences. However as I pursue the vision I have for a scene, I find there are tools missing that it would require. I am tenacious -- obsessive, really -- and so I create the tools and drill through any barriers that stand between me and my vision, and I will share the tools with you for your creations too. This thread is for progress and interest in the first of those tools that will be released: the WearableAsset plugin. Second, I suppose, if you consider the morph filter plugin I gave the rather awkward name MorphFilterPlus, but that was because I saw something I already had that I knew you would want.

Regarding this plugin-in-progress, I am a huge fan of the excellent work of BlazeDust and I believe MacGruber on the ParentHoldLink plugins (other in here). I am equally impressed by CUA Superglue by Pineapler. These are excellent tools for pinning clothing assets to joints, and if that's what you need, I recommend them. However, I found animation of those assets remained a little tedious (not a fault of the plugins), and my first scene for you is going to involve some hat trickery (which is also why I made the Ashen Hat).

So one of a few tools I'm creating is the WearableAsset plugin, which I will provide updates and take feedback/suggestions for here.
This is a plugin that pins assets to joints, similar to the other plugins, but the heart of the plugin is ease-of-animation, and it provides these features:

Offsets
You can offset the asset while it is parented, allowing you to animate its position and rotation relative to the joint while it follows the joint.

Poses
You can store the current parenting & orientation into a "pose", and freely switch between saved poses, including via triggers such as in a timeline track. You can also save poses on-demand in an animation and load them by name, which could make for some interesting procedural states, but really I just included that out of intrigue; I haven't had a use case for it yet.

Friendly Parenting
While it's always been possible to animate and change the parenting of an object, I felt it was more efficient to make it a part of the plugin UI. As such it readily shows you the people in the scene to choose from, and the key body joints to parent to, in a handy dropdown selector, which is also exposed for animators like Timeline.

As soon as this has been tested and cleaned enough to go into a beta state, it will be made available, for free, to all. That said, working on these things is tough and takes a lot of time. If you would like to contribute, or want a hands-on sneak-peek, the alpha states of my plugins will always be available to patrons.

The first scene I'm creating needs precision with undressing, so once this is publishable I'll move on to finishing up a threshold-based weight multiplier plugin for clothing (yet unnamed... maybe "super sim?"), currently in pre-alpha, which will likewise be made available to you.

Cheers <3

GossamerVR
patreon.com/GossamerVR

 

[KillDozer69]

Very much looking forward to this!

 

[GossamerVR]

Added an option to offset in world space-- the UI displays this through a global toggle, but both local and global offset values are available for animation simultaneously.

 

[GossamerVR]

Seems to be working, saving, and loading fine; going to double check subscenes and should probably have a beta out by the end of the week.

 

[GossamerVR]

I'm removing the global offset as it's a little more difficult to get to behave and can be confusing for people expecting a relative transformation.

So far this has been working in my WIP scene, including after packaging as a var and testing in a pristine installation. There's an error it spits out at the initial load because it tries to load a pose before the joint, but once I resolve that I think a beta will be ready for public access.

 

[SlimerJSpud]

One issue I've noticed with assets is they simply do not conform to the body as it moves or morphs. Check out the free Venetian Masks. Great looking masks, but they seem to only work for static poses. When the face changes expression, the skin pokes through, usually at the bottom by the cheeks. A fix for this would be a wonder. Perhaps if the mask could shift just enough to resolve the poke through, it would work.

 

[GossamerVR]

One issue I've noticed with assets is they simply do not conform to the body as it moves or morphs. Check out the free Venetian Masks. Great looking masks, but they seem to only work for static poses. When the face changes expression, the skin pokes through, usually at the bottom by the cheeks. A fix for this would be a wonder. Perhaps if the mask could shift just enough to resolve the poke through, it would work.

interesting, that sounds like a tough one. This asset is just to let things follow and offset but I can definitely see the value in having something 'wrap' better. I may look into that in the future.

 

[GossamerVR]

Public beta is now available

 

[SlimerJSpud]

I tried this with the Venetian masks and it didn't work so well. It prevented poke-through, but it also seemed to be preventing the model's head from moving correctly. I tried changing some parameters on the CUA, but it didn't help. I'm using the Eyes Wide Shut dance scene. You might want to try that, or another rapidly moving dance scene as a stress test. You can either use your hat, or the Venetian masks. You might look at the default settings the plugin loads when it takes control of a CUA. Thanks for the effort!

 

[GossamerVR]

I tried this with the Venetian masks and it didn't work so well. It prevented poke-through, but it also seemed to be preventing the model's head from moving correctly. I tried changing some parameters on the CUA, but it didn't help. I'm using the Eyes Wide Shut dance scene. You might want to try that, or another rapidly moving dance scene as a stress test. You can either use your hat, or the Venetian masks. You might look at the default settings the plugin loads when it takes control of a CUA. Thanks for the effort!

Thanks for the report, I'll test it out. The plugin doesn't alter the movement of the joints, so nothing comes to mind as to why it would prevent the head from moving.

 

[GossamerVR]

Ah of course, it's the collision. I forgot cuas will have colliders.
I'll have to make a Known Issue entry that this plugin doesn't support collision on CUAs just yet. @SlimerJSpud If you are able to turn collision off in the "Physics Object" tag of the CUA, this will resolve all those issues.

In the meantime I will look for a way to support collision CUAs. Thanks again for letting me know!

 

[GossamerVR]

I tried this with the Venetian masks and it didn't work so well. It prevented poke-through, but it also seemed to be preventing the model's head from moving correctly. I tried changing some parameters on the CUA, but it didn't help. I'm using the Eyes Wide Shut dance scene. You might want to try that, or another rapidly moving dance scene as a stress test. You can either use your hat, or the Venetian masks. You might look at the default settings the plugin loads when it takes control of a CUA. Thanks for the effort!

As a temporary solution, 2.0 will disable CUA collision automatically when it's added to the asset. This should prevent the collision issue. I have some ideas on how to support collision without interfering with the wearer, though so I will still be exploring this.

Please let me know if you still encounter any issues!

 

[SlimerJSpud]

Thanks for the update. I'll try turning off collision.

 

[GossamerVR]

Thanks for the update. I'll try turning off collision.

If you grab the new version it will do this for you when applied so you won't have to look for it, too.

 

[SlimerJSpud]

Yep, works great. Here's Rey from A F*ck Awakens in the Odalisque outfit with mask and feathers doing the Eyes Wide Shut dance.

 

[SlimerJSpud]

This plugin works great on restraints. The cuffs in the Beginning of the Show scene stay glued to the arms and legs a lot better with this plugin. Thanks!

 

[GossamerVR]

This plugin works great on restraints. The cuffs in the Beginning of the Show scene stay glued to the arms and legs a lot better with this plugin. Thanks!

Glad it works well!

 

[Aminator]

Can this be used to attach a riding crop or yard stick etc to the hand and get a realistic fast motion? So far I've had little success creating scenes like that.

Getting her to swing a riding crop realistically is a nightmare. It never looks natural with the wrist movement and ends up being to slow if I keyframe it.
If collision can't be used can I just parent a cylinder to the tip of the cua and make it invisible?

 

[GossamerVR]

Can this be used to attach a riding crop or yard stick etc to the hand and get a realistic fast motion? So far I've had little success creating scenes like that.

You can definitely attach something to the hand, and it will follow.

If collision can't be used can I just parent a cylinder to the tip of the cua and make it invisible?

Unfortunately it's not likely for this to work in the way you'd expect, since the ruler and then the hand would have to obey the physics of the cylinder via inverse kinematics. The next update, hopefully next week, will provide a little bit better collision support (though still limited), and you may be able to get some results you want.

In the meantime, what this plugin would allow you to do is "simulate" the collision by animating the offset values. It's not ideal, of course, but it would allow you to get some movement animated.