Is there a way to rig it without using drivers? I would like to render my animation in sheepit, but they don't allow the u...

Is there a way to rig it without using drivers? I would like to render my animation in sheepit, but they don't allow the use of scripts and therefore drivers. I was wondering if there is a work around to keep most of the functionality of the rig without using the drivers, or maybe there is a new method in the newer versions of Blender that is not considered scripts but still achieves the same function
  • Kent Trammell replied
    You can rig a face without drivers, but you can't use shapekeys without drivers. The former is often referred to as "bone-based" facial rigging and it's quite the complex task..one that I've never attempted.
  • David Frazier(pointoflife14) replied
    Thanks for asking this question rodri. And thanks Kent for the great answer. Love great intuitive convo like this! :)
  • Ingmar Franz(duerer) replied

    Isn't it possible to export the pure mesh animation so that you can delete the rig?  Blender 2.9 can read the formats "Alembic" (.abc) with the "Mesh Sequence Cache Modifier" (see here) and MDD and PC2 with the "Mesh Cache Modifier" (see here). Blender 2.66 only had the "Mesh Cache Modifier". Unfortunately I'm not experienced with these formats and don't know how "Sheepit" mentioned above by rodri handles this.

    However, there's an Addon already in Blender 2.66 for exporting animations to MDD:

    @stanp (see here on CG Cookie Stan Paillereau) describes it in his "Book Rigging" tutorial (I don't know anymore in which of the 4 parts; see first part here) but as far as I can remember he had some problems with the orientation when reimporting it into Blender. See also https://cgcookie.com/u/stanp/projects/book-rig .


  • Ingmar Franz(duerer) replied

    What this MDD-Export-Addon does is to create a "Shapekey" for every frame and name it after that frame as well as creating a "Keyframe" for activating each "Shapekey" only at that frame. After exporting the animation as MDD, you can delete the rig and the "Armature Modifier" on the deformed mesh and import the MDD file created before. It's important to do it on the same mesh so that the "Vertex Count" fits:

  • Ingmar Franz(duerer) replied

    For the creation of PC2-files you need and Addon for writing "Pointcaches" which already existed in Blender 2.66:

    It works without "Shapekeys" but needs the "Mesh Cache Modifier":