  Skeleton-based and cage-based deformation techniques represent the two most
popular approaches to control real-time deformations of digital shapes and are,
to a vast extent, complementary to one another. Despite their complementary
roles, high-end modeling packages do not allow for seamless integration of such
control structures, thus inducing a considerable burden on the user to maintain
them synchronized. In this paper, we propose a framework that seamlessly
combines rigging skeletons and deformation cages, granting artists with a
real-time deformation system that operates using any smooth combination of the
two approaches. By coupling the deformation spaces of cages and skeletons, we
access a much larger space, containing poses that are impossible to obtain by
acting solely on a skeleton or a cage. Our method is oblivious to the specific
techniques used to perform skinning and cage-based deformation, securing it
compatible with pre-existing tools. We demonstrate the usefulness of our hybrid
approach on a variety of examples.
