Is there some way to constraint a bone to a vertex of a mesh?
1 vertex would be enough for translation constraint, and 2 vertices for a rotation constraint?
constraint a bone to a mesh point?
- Edited
Usually it is the other way around because it is simpler to move a bone than editing vertexes, what use case did you have in mind for this feature?
I have a round creature that has a few thin tentacles going out from the base of the creature. tentacles are separate meshes.
I have two single of bones inside the round body, that have a pulsating motion (similar to a heart beating), done by scaling them.
the tentacles graphics, blend seamlessly into the graphic of the round body (it's a semi realistic creature) so when I scale the bones of the body to create a pulsating motion, I have to manually move and key the position of the tentacles so their base looks like it is still connected to the same location on the deformed round body.
coming from 3D animation software, this is actually a pretty handy constraint, at least for me 
You could turn the images of the tentacles into meshes too and weight them accordingly.
Another potential solution (depends on your structure) would be to parent the tentacle bones to the closest scaling bone that influences most of the specific part of the mesh, but disable inherit scale. This way tentacles won't deform, and they will follow properly.
yeah I do the second method you suggested, but I still need to manually adjust the position of the tentacles, because the tentacles connect to the body, in an area of the mesh that is influenced considerably by the two pulsating bones, if it was an area of the mesh that is influenced mostly by one pulsating bone, I could make those weights 100% to that bone, and then it would probably work much better.
with a constraint to point, I could create a specific mesh point exactly where the tentacle connects to the body, and then constraint the first bone of the tentacle to that vertex.
thanks
If you make sure the "connecting" vertices on the tentacles line up with vertices on the body, you shouldn't need any constraints. Just make sure those vertices have the same weight.
Shiu wroteIf you make sure the "connecting" vertices on the tentacles line up with vertices on the body, you shouldn't need any constraints. Just make sure those vertices have the same weight.
the tentacle is a separate mesh, with it's own rig, I can hook the tentacles base vertices to the body bone, and have same weight, but that will just stretch those points along, and I would still need to manually move the root bone of the tentacle.
anyway these workarounds do help, and minimize manual work, but a constraint to point or points could be handy in my opnion