Frederik Steinmetz demystifies the Blender Laplacian Deform Modifier showing how to use it effectively for posing models. The modifier will allow you to pose a mesh in Blender while still preserving the surface’s geometric details.

As Frederik notes, the tool can be difficult to use if you are unsure of what is going on, or how blender is doing it. The Laplacian Deform Modifier requires a set of anchor vertices, keeping some in fixed positions and then calculates the best possible locations of all the remaining vertices to preserve the original object’s details.

The Laplacian Deform Modifier keeps the geometry details by using differential coordinates. The differential coordinates captures the local geometric information how curvature and direction of a vertex based on its neighbors.

Check out the tutorial for Using The Laplacian Deform Modifier in Blender here.