Sparrowhawke3D plugins and Carrara 8.5

I haven't tested all of my plugins fully yet but no obvious problems have shown up, so there should be no reason for a Carrara 8.5 rebuild.

However there are potential issues when using my 'Jiggle' and 'Pin To' plugins with Genesis figures. By default the Genesis figures are set with subdivision Smoothing at Model Level=0 and Render Level=1 or 2. This difference in mesh detail could cause both those plugins to switch off when you render, depending on how you use them. If the Model and Render detail levels are both set to the same value when the modifiers are applied you won't have a problem, except for a slower figure to work with. The problem isn't new to C8.5, it's only that with the Gen4 and other figures I never turned up the render detail level to notice this.

So I'd advise not to use the 'Store Vertex Weights' feature with Jiggle and if possible to use a few frames from the zero position before setting up a pose for the best results. Jiggle is essentially an automated magnet deformer and so the initial placement of the zone is very important. If you change the initial pose at time zero to have a figure bend right over with a jelly belly, or fold their arms over their chest those other body parts will get caught up in the zone.

A re-write and re-think for these plugins is also needed if they are to be compatible with dynamics and cloth etc. Jiggle does not produce perfectly consistent results when the scene playback time rate changes. A bake or other feature may be needed to improve it.

To illustrate the problem we could use M5. He's let himself go and has a pot belly. I've put the inclusion zone over his belly and used it as the target mass. A Jiggle Deformer is then applied to both M5 and his boxers with the same settings.

If we use the Jiggle Store Vertex Weights feature, hide the zone, then pose him and render with Smoothing at Level=2 notice the rendered image has no sag in the belly. The deformer has to turn itself off when there is a change in the mesh detail to prevent a crash.

Also if we were to bend him over further at progress/time = 0 (maybe doubled up after another supersized meal) then the zone will enter into his legs and make them sag.