Geodesic Voxel binding

Geodesic Voxel binding is designed to work with meshes that may contain non-manifold, non-watertight, intersecting triangles or are comprised of multiple connected components. These components can often cause problems for automated binding algorithms, such as Heatmap bind. See also Bind smooth skin with Geodesic Voxel binding.

This method voxelizes the input geometry to calculate binding weights derived from the geodesic distance between voxels on the skeleton and the mesh

The Geodesic Voxel binding method also lets you select multiple meshes, which gives continuous weighting across the geometry since all shapes are treated as a single volume. The Geodesic Voxel bind computes influence weights that are compatible with linear blend or dual-quaternion skinning.

Note: To be used effectively, Geodesic Voxel binding has two requirements that need to be respected. Unlike other Maya bind methods, with Geodesic Voxel binding, you must enclose all joints influences inside the mesh volume. If this is not done, geodesic distance will not be correctly computed. Additionally, normals for geometry front faces should be oriented so they point outwards. A simple way to check this is to enable backface culling in the viewport and visually inspect results.

Voxels

Voxel is a term used in 3D to describe the amount of capacity or space a 3D object occupies. Voxels are useful for representing regularly-sampled spaces that are dissimilarly filled.

Voxelization is the act of converting a 3D geometric object into a set of voxels that closely approximates the input mesh. This process is similar to the rasterization process in 2D.

This example shows a character mesh voxelized at different resolutions.

Degenerate geometry

Degenerate (or degenerative) geometry refers to geometry with properties that differ from the standard recognized by the software, and which cause computation issues for certain binding algorithms, such as Maya Heatmap. Degenerate geometry can be any (or all) of the following:

Non-manifold (non-watertight) geometry
Intersecting shapes
Co-planar, co-linear, or co-located points
Multiple connected components
Edges that intersect
Shapes that cannot "fill"
Any other form that causes unexpected or conflicting data

If you encounter degenerate geometry errors or warnings, examine your geometry for these inconsistencies.