Swap between animation-driven and physics-driven joints?

[josemendez]

I'm wondering if there is a way to change how joints influence a skeletal softbody at runtime. Normally, animation on the joints influences the softbody, but could it be switched so the softbody simulation moves the joints as if they were particles? Could this switching be done for specific joints at runtime or perhaps the root joint so the entire skeleton follows the softbody's movement? Basically, I'm trying to implement a way to switch a skeletal softbody back and forth from an animation-driven state to a physics-driven rag doll state. Any thoughts you have on this would be appreciated!

Softbodies work on mesh vertices, since they're intended to deform the mesh. They cannot influence joints.

What you describe sounds rather similar to what ObiBone does, though: it places a particle in each joint and links them together using twist/bend and stretch/shear constraints, creating some kind of "active skeleton". ObiBone is part of the ObiRope package. See:
http://obi.virtualmethodstudio.com/manua...setup.html