This is a blender add-on which give you stretch and squeeze information for any mesh object.
This add-on has been created by Jean-Francois Gallant aka Pyroevil and his version is available to download at this link.
It was released under the GPL2 or later licence.
This repository contains my version of the add-on, which has been made PEP8 compliant, has been optimized and commented. I also fixed the errors and warning I could find.
I do not know if PyroEvil is planning on continuing development of this add-on, but I am.
Go to the releases page on github and under Downloads, choose the latest tensionmap-x.x.x.x.zip.
If you want the latest in-developpment version, which is not recommanded, you can go on the master branch on github, then click the button that says Clone or download, then Download ZIP. Be aware that as noted in #1, the default name of the ZIP file may not be for a blender Addon-on. You will need to rename the ZIP before continuing.
Once downloaded, Do not extract the ZIP file.
Open Blender, go into File, User Preferences, Add-ons, and click on Install from File... at the bottom of the window.
Navigate to the folder you downloaded the ZIP file into, then double click on the file, or select it and click Install from File...
You should see the add-on in the list. If not, search for tension in the search box and it should pop up.
Click on the checkbox to enable it.
If you wish for the add-on to be enabled by default, click on Save User Settings at the bottom of the screen before closing the preferences.
If you now select any Object of type MESH and go into the Properties panel, under the Data tab, you should see a new section called Tension Map Script.
Enable it then click on the Update tension map button.
Two new groups should have been added to your Vertex Groups, as well as one Vertex Colors entry.
Use the vertex groups to drive things such as modifiers, and vertex colors to drive materials.
You can access the vertex colors though the Attribute node, by simply witting tm_tension in the Name field.
You then want to plug the color output to a Separate RGB node, to get stretch values from the Red channel and squeezed values from the Green channel. Note that the Blue channel is not used (for now).
Please report any bugs or suggestions in the appropriated tab on the github page.
Support for shape key deformation
I hope you'll find this add-on useful and I am open to suggestions (regarding this addon, or ideas for addons)!
Scott