In my project I want to deform a complex mesh, using a simpler 'proxy' mesh.

In effect, each vertex of the proxy/collision mesh will be a control point/bone, which should deform the vertices of the main mesh attached to it depending on weight, but where the weight is not dependant on the absolute distance from the control point but rather distance relative to the other affecting control points.

The point of this is to preserve complex three dimensional features of the main mesh while using physics implementations which expect something far simpler, low resolution, single surface, etc. Therefore, the vertices must deform linearly with their respective weighted control points (i.e. no falloff fields or all the mesh features will end up collapsed) - as if each vertex was linked to a point on the plane created by the attached control points and deformed with it.

I have tried implementing the weight computation algorithm in this paper (page 4) but it is not working as expected and I am wondering if it is really the best way to do what I want.

What is the simplest way to 'skin'* an arbitrary mesh, to another arbitrary mesh?

*By skin I mean I need an algorithm to determine the best control points for a vertex, and their weights.