COMING SOON / Armature Skinning

In previous post I have mentioned about Skin Modifier by Nicholas Bishop that is under development:
http://blendersushi.blogspot.com.au/2011/12/addons-skin-modifier-for-modeling-base.html

I am checking about the progress of this Skin Modifier and the development seems to be going well. Interestingly, what so called Skin Modifier is now part of Blender Armature (joints and bones), and now called: Armature Skinning.
http://graphicall.org/?keywords=skinning

SKIN MODIFIER VS ARMATURE SKINNING
Personally, I prefer the idea of Skin Modifier or some kind of Modifier that does skinning/surfacing of point cloud based on the point weight. It feels simpler. Blender probably will have something like that in the future to skin Particle Fluid. Maybe, I am just guessing.

This Skin Modifier as part of Armature requires users to understand a little bit about joints as opposite of easy way to just using Modifier. Is this for modeler or for rigger or for animator?

But then again, when I think about it, having Skin Modifier as part of Armature is actually SUPER HANDY too! It will open up many possibilities. Creating variety of creatures based on similar Armature Rigs and animating them will be actually much easier to realize.

There are limitations in this kind of Armature Skinning approach, such as the joint needs to be growing like a tree and sometimes the skinning result might not be perfect as you want it to. Still, I think this method has interesting potential.

Either way, this "skinning" is still brilliant feature. Blender should have it both ways as modifier and also inside the joint. Let's explore this a bit more.

HOW DOES ARMATURE SKINNING WORK
Firstly, you may want to read Nicholas Bishop post:
http://nicholasbishop.net/wordpress/?p=108

And his video demo on it:

Base on that video demo and also by exploring this method, the way you use Armature Skinning is by:
1. Firstly, create Armature.
2. Activate: Display Skin.
3. Continue editing the Armature by extruding points, connecting points, adjusting the size of joint, etc.
4. Create Skin (skin automatically created and already bound and weighted)
5. Pose and animate the Armature.

CREATING ARMATURE

I am not 100% understand Blender Armature yet, so please let me know if I am wrong.

• You can easily Subdivide joints in Blender.
• I like the "connect the dot" or "ctrl+click-click-click" method that works across Blender polygon modeling and also works on Armature. You start with a single vertex of polygon mesh or an Armature in this case, and then you start extruding it by either tapping E (extrude) and move your mouse, or you simple hold Ctrl and continue with multiple clicks.
• Blender Joints can be parented into other joint in the hierarchy but not necessarily "Connected". For Armature Skinning, I think you need to have connected bones so that it resulting in a good Skin mesh.
• Blender understand Symmetric of Joints Hierarchy, so if you name your joint: arm.LEFT, Blender understand there is another joint pair if you have arm.RIGHT.
• Hitting W while editing Joints will give you some useful command: Subdivide, Switch Direction, Flip Name, etc. 
• For Mirroring Joints Hierarchy, I don't think there is a command for it, but you can do it like this:
  - Selecting Joint Hierarchy (select top joint and then select children in the hierarchy by tapping L, select linked)
  - Shift+D to duplicate that joint hierarchy
  - Ctrl+M = mirror, you can specify the Pivot to follow 3D Cursor
• Turn on X-Axis Mirror if you like Transform and Extrude Mirroring to work.

ARMATURE TO SKIN

Let's start by creating rough Armature and Skin them. This is totally rough and unplanned. Think of this like sketching using Pencil.

When you switch to Edit in Armature Skin mode, you can adjust the "weight" at each Joints points:

CREATE SKIN

Once you have the rough character skin, press Create Skin button.

POSE AND ANIMATE

At this stage, you actually have a Skin mesh that is fully rig and weighted based on the joints that created the Skin. You can quickly pose and animate the character. If you understand Blender Rigging like Constraints, etc, you can add better Controls.

On top of this Skinned mesh, you are also able to add Multiresolution Modifier and sculp it to your liking.

It is a rough conceptual character, so pardon the "unfinished" look.

SUMMARY

So what do you think of this Armature Skinning method? Like or dislike? It is not the usual modeling, it feels very "rough" and slightly "restricted". 

Armature Skin:

Quick pose and render:

You know, I think I have not even started yet with this... At this moment it has this "origami" feels about it. Plenty to explore. So, I am super excited with Armature Skinning! 

So, I guess now it is time to refine rigging technique in Blender.

Anyhow here is inspiring video:

Nicholas Bishop, you are genius, thanks for developing this feature. Can't wait until this feature matures.

UPDATE 2012.03.27

Yet again, this Armature Skinning is now back to become Skin Modifier once more, which now has option to generate Armature based on Polygon Edges and bind it to the Skin.

Either way, it is quite interesting to see how things are developing.

Because of this, the title of this post should be: "Armature Skinning" (now and then).