Yeah I will change the specular texture and reduce the polygons on that tap. How do you get the water in that barrel if there was no tap? ;) Post later with some update.. Cheers!
Yep, if you base it on bounding box matching and polygon count then it should be possible to do a fully automated script (and have it generate keyframes automatically), would be cool!
You elbow and knee deformation is back to front! You want NO middle edge on the inside of the elbows and backs of the knees - instead you want a big polygon that collapses.
right click on the mesh, go to object properties, and there is a checkbox for backface cull. If you turn that on it will only show the one side of your polygons that faces the correct direction.
I'll throw a comment in here too that if your art director wants a bunch of light bulbs in the players face ... they're going to have to accept some polygons. :)
Might want to try and get it working on a simple polygon plane and sphere or somthing simple first. Do it in a new scene. It will help rule out some of the variables.