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Rigging

Once we have a mesh, we have to describe exactly how it can move: a face can smile, an arm can bend, a pizza box can fold in half, etc. That's what rigging is about.

We want to limit the kinds of motion an object can make, to produce tracking results with less jitter and without motions that are physically impossible. For example, we'd like to keep our heads firmly attached to the body, without the prospect that the neck is shorter or longer on every frame.

Rigging for GeoH tracking is the same idea as rigging for 3D animation. If your mesh is already rigged in your 3D package, you may be able to export a BVH file of the reference pose, have SynthEyes read it and build the matching hierarchy automatically. (You'll still need to set up vertex deformation layers.)

Fundamentals Tools for Rigging Creating Hierarchy Surface Effects Structural Effects Editing Pivots Numeric Editing with the Coordinate Selector Importing Hierarchy Refining Hierarchy Locked vs Unlocked Joints The "Affect Parent" Setting Joint Limits—Not! Deformation Weighting Layers Some Details on Weights and Deformation Weights and Tracking Reading Weights from Image Maps Do Not Track Layer

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