Dual Quaternion

Dual Quaternion Blending

By default, BonesPro uses linear blending to deform meshes.
Alternatively, you can enable dual quaternion blending, which preserves volume more effectively during rotations.

This is especially useful for areas like shoulders, hips, or twisting limbs, where linear blending often causes visible volume loss.

However, dual quaternion blending can sometimes produce a slightly over-inflated (bloated) appearance.
To achieve optimal results, BonesPro allows you to blend between linear and dual quaternion deformation per vertex.

Enabling Dual Quaternion Blending

The Dual Quaternion checkbox in the main rollout controls whether this feature is active.

• Disabled
  BonesPro behaves like earlier versions and uses only linear blending.

• Enabled
  Each vertex can use a mix between linear and dual quaternion blending.
  By default, all vertices are set to 100% dual quaternion, resulting in a fully volume-preserving deformation.

Controlling Dual Quaternion Influence

BonesPro provides several ways to adjust how much dual quaternion blending is applied across the mesh.

Manual Values

In the Vertices rollout, you can assign a blending value directly to selected vertices.

• Select vertices
• Enter a value to define the blend between linear and dual quaternion

This method is ideal for quickly adjusting large areas.
You can refine transitions using the paint tool’s smoothing option.

Vertex Painting

BonesPro’s paint mode can be used to paint dual quaternion influence directly onto the mesh.

• Switch to the appropriate paint mode
• Paint values just like weight painting
• Use smoothing tools for clean transitions
  
  ℹ️

  Note: Dual quaternion blending is more sensitive than standard weight painting.
  Use lower paint strength for better control.

MAXScript

Dual quaternion blending values are fully accessible via MAXScript.

This enables:

• procedural control
• automation workflows
• custom export pipelines with selective blending support

Refer to the MAXScript documentation for implementation details.

Visualizing Dual Quaternion Influence

BonesPro provides a visualization mode to display blending across the mesh.

• When no bones are selected
  → the viewport shows dual quaternion influence

• When bones are selected
  → the display switches to bone weight influence

By default, a grayscale gradient is used:

• Black → linear blending
• Light gray → dual quaternion blending
  You can customize these colors in the BonesPro options.