What soft-body settings do you use for animated skin, or is there a better way?

[Sid Edwards]

I’d like to get semi-realistic skin deformations that occur upon contact with another object or character, but I’m unsure the best way to go about this. If I rig a character to an armature, then do I just simply apply soft-body to it to emulate this effect? If so, what settings are best? 

[Omar Domenech]

Again, if you find that out, tell us instead. Maybe make a tutorial so we all learn. 

[Sid Edwards]

But is there a conventional way to do this using soft-body? I’m not asking for the most realistic stuff, just let if a pebble hits someone, then their skin will deform in a roughly circular way and bounce off. Is that possible?

[Omar Domenech]

I guess so, but I have a feeling all of that is faked rather than letting the computer do it for you. Meaning you have to manually push and pull controls to make it look like something contracted as something else exerted an action to it. 

[Dwayne Savage]

I haven’t worked with the FX/sims part of production. What you’re describing is what is commonly referred to as jiggle physics or impact sim. A lot of the time this is done with creative weights painting, extra bones, and drivers. Sometimes it’s done with sims like cloth and/or soft body. There’s an addon called wiggle bones that is great for animating such actions. I can check my notes when I get home from work in about 8 hours. I don’t know if it will apply since it’s for 2.76, but it could be a good starter point. 

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