Real-Time Shape Key Animation Tool
Hello Blender devs and community,
I’d like to suggest a new feature inspired by the "Grab" tool in Quill, tailored for creating shape key animations. Here’s the idea:
Imagine being able to work on an animated mesh in real-time, where the animation loops continuously, and any modifications you make using a grab-like tool automatically generate shape keys along the timeline. This way, the mesh deforms fluidly in sync with the animation, creating a sequence of shape keys without needing to keyframe every step manually.
This tool could offer:
Real-time Interaction: Adjust the mesh as it moves, seeing changes directly in context. Automatic Shape Key Creation: Generate shape keys dynamically based on the deformations made while scrubbing or looping the animation. Streamlined Workflow: Significantly reduce the time spent manually keyframing subtle deformations. Such a feature would be incredibly helpful for animators and artists working on complex, organic animations or stylized effects.
Would this be feasible within Blender’s current system? I’d love to hear the community’s thoughts and feedback on this!
Thank you!
2 Comments
The "animate while in playback" side of things is already there for object and bone based animation, just run playback while autokey is on and do whatever you like. But animating raw mesh deforms or even generation isn't there yet.
That being said, it made me think about how the Keymesh addon adds a lot of ways to animate raw mesh. So I asked on the official topic if that would be a considerable feature. See more about that addon there:
Keymesh - Coding / Released Scripts and Themes - Blender Artists Community
Download:
Keymesh — Blender Extensions
It would be amazing to have the ability to animate the mesh, as it would allow for "squash and stretch" effects to be created quickly and intuitively, as well as effects like wind, inertia, fluids, and more.
When I have some free time, I’ll definitely test the current features of the addon. Thanks for sharing this information!