Okay, so I've got a model of a hand
What are you using for joints (physics based or modeling armature or homegrown)?
Oh, just jME physics Joint objects…
You might want to take a similar approach as .:emp…hellg:. has done over here: http://www.jmonkeyengine.com/jmeforum/index.php?topic=8956.msg69357#msg69357
The skinning aspect is something more easily done by a modeling tool in a format like md5 or similar.
Thank you, but in that post he seems to be using a MD5 model… I have none. Just Cylinder and Joint objects. I don't really understand what he's trying to do, as he has a MD5 model already?
Procedurally adding virtual skin over existing geometry would be hugely complicated, if that's what you mean.
Right now, the cylinders are the "skin".
All of the structure and movement is contained within your joint/skeletal system.
The conventional approach would be to attach a mesh to that, which would be the skin instead of the cylinders.
You can certainly apply a texture to each of your primitives and that would be a cheap way of giving it a more interesting look.
You can calculate collisions and physics using the cylinders and then use a MD5/Mesh.XML model for rendering, which would be controlled by the joints.
Okay, thanks guys. Looks like this is going to be quite complicated. I'll have to re-evaluate if it's worth it or not…