Mesh Match: Advanced Mesh Alignment and Retargeting in Autodesk Maya
Mesh Match brings new mesh registration capabilities to Autodesk Maya. Mesh Match is designed for animation studios, 3D scan companies, independant artists and technicians, offering a way to precisely align objects that share a similar overall structure, even if their topology differ.
Unlike its competitors, MeshMatch can perform mesh alignment with little to no landmarks at all.
It also offers automatic landmarks detection with AI vision directly from any Maya viewport.
Beyond alignment, Mesh Match allows to retarget deformations such as blendShapes, along with controllers or skeleton positions, from one model to another. This feature works effectively whether your models have the same topology or entirely different structures. The system considers local curvature and scale variations during the process to ensure accurate results.
Key tasks:
- Standardize Meshes: Apply a consistent topology to objects that come from 3D scans or AI-generated content.
- Retarget Deformations: Move blendShapes or other deformers from a base model to a different character, even if their topologies don’t match.
- Migrate Rigs: Transfer the positions of controllers or entire skeletons between your models.
- Share Surface Attributes: Move UVs, vertex colors, or other mesh component properties between different topologies.
The setup process for Mesh Match is designed to be efficient. After a brief familiarization period, users typically find they can configure the tool in minutes, helping to speed up production workflows.
Mesh Match is built using C++ plugins for performance. A Qt-based user interface manages the overall workflow. For users wishing to integrate Mesh Match into custom pipelines, an API is also available to automate tasks.
To help you get started and use the tool effectively, a range of support materials is available. This includes detailed documentation, tutorial videos, example scenes, and a dedicated Discord server for community discussion. Full details on all features can be found in the ‘documentation’ section.
Mesh Match required 1500 hours of development so far, but is still actively worked on.