Squish and bulging Geometry Nodes group for Blender

This is a simple Geometry Nodes group that will allow you to deform a model using any other mesh. The deformation consists in a squish-in at the place of contact, and bulge-out at the borders. You need to create a very simple "dummy" for the bulge-out (just scale a little in the vertical axis for most cases).

This .blend includes:

• A rigged model that is deformed
• Two different deformers with their corresponding dummies
• An even more simplified example

In order to import this to any project:

1. Drag and drop this .blend into your project
2. Append
3. NodeTree
4. SquishBulge
5. Add the Geometry Nodes modifier to your 3D model
6. Assign the SquishBulge Node Tree

Usage:

• Add the Geometry Nodes modifier after the Armature modifier if your model is rigged
• You have to add one Geometry Nodes modifiers per deforming mesh
• Fields:
  • Deformer: main deforming mesh. This is the one that squishes-in
  • DeformerDummy: dummy deformer. It's supposed to be bigger and follow the Deformer. Makes this child of the deformer if you need to. This is the one that bulges-out.
  • In: the amount to be squished-in
  • Out: the amount to be bulged-out
  • SubDiv: how many subdivisions should be applied at the end. It's recommended to apply subdivisions only at the end, and not before, for best results.

Disclaimer:

I'm not able to provide support for this project. Consider it a template or starting point, rather than a complete solution.

2024 update:

I tweaked the skin shader so it's a little bit nicer.