skinning interface

[john_homer]

I would be very interested in getting hold of such a script...

please do post it if you do write it.

.j

[nottoshabi]

R_K > nothing like that on the net exists but if you can built it I will love to take it for a test drive.. :buttrock:

[MikeRhone]

Oh man....

I would KILL for a script like that. Please ask me to kill.

Seriously though... If anyone scripts this I'de love to hear about it as well. Its out of my MEL realm of knowledge at this point though.

m

[dwalden74]

Well, I´ve been working on a tool that´s a bit similar to what you´re asking for, R_K. I also needed something that would speed up various skinning-related tasks, and initially a tool that would swap skin weight between 2 influences. Well, I wrote that script, then added some pretty handy additional features (like toggling weight normalization, toggling "Hold" on-off more quickly, removing selected points from the influence of given joints, etc..).

Anyway, if you´re interested take a look; I´d also be interested in incorporating some new features in there:

dwSkinningTools (http://www.davidwalden.com/mel/dwSkinningTools.mel) (RMB "Save Link Target As").

Unfortunately right now it does not have component editor functionality; that could be something I could add in the future however.

:beer:
David

[R_K]

Hey thanks David! i was just gonna look for your script today. someone showed it to me a few days ago. it looks awesome. i will play with it today and get back to you. Thank you for the note!

r

[dwalden74]

OK, I just finished some pretty rocking updates to this script. You can now set skin weight values in the UI- either in absolute or relative mode, according to your selected points and highlighted influence(s). There´s also a button that shows only the influences of selected points. Additionally with the RMB popup you can now see and select the highlighted influences´ parent or child (not sure how useful that is though).

You can download from the link I posted already...ah, hell, I´ll just post it again:

dwSkinningTools (http://www.davidwalden.com/mel/dwSkinningTools.mel) (RMB "Saved Target As...")

Send me your feedback if you want. There might still be some small bugs in there, but it seems to be working pretty well.

:beer:
Google E. Bear

[R_K]

ok, just started playing with it! :bounce:

really an awesome job! this is definetly on the road to what i am looking for!

i will get back to you with some thoughts.

you are awesome!

r

[dwalden74]

R_K-

I just fixed a small bug - here´s (http://www.davidwalden.com/mel/dwSkinningTools.mel) the latest version. Let me know how it goes. Yeah, I´ve also needed a tool like this for a very long time... :)

-david

[R_K]

:bounce:

ok, some thoughts -

the script is really cool! the rmb is awesome but instead of selecting the joints in maya, for skinning, i would like it to keep the vertices selected but allow me to edit the influence of the parent or child on those vertices.

also, i found myself going to the component editor to check the value of the weights for the other joints influencing it. it would be awesome to have some sort of feedback within your UI on what the weight values are for the influences to the selected vertices.

the toggle weight button is great! and the set weight options are awesome! the slider for relative really works well.

the show selected point influences is also an awesome tool but if, instead of a button, it was part of the UI and here i mean if there was something like a seperate column for influences to selected vertices with their weighting that would be great.

these are comments designed around my own interests and work flow which i do not imagine you are writting this tool solely for. The tool as it stands is an awesome addition to my arsenal. Thank you so much for sharing!
:bowdown:

r

[R_K]

ok, some simplified thoughts:

thats what i get for thinking and playing at the same time. everything comes out jumbled.

first, my first issue is a non-issue.

the crux of any issue i have is that it would be nice to have some feedback on what the weights are for the influences on the selected vertices. that is the only thing. besides that, it seems you have totally designed the thing for my work flow! it is simply amazing.

second,
:bowdown: :love:

thanks,

r

[dwalden74]

the crux of any issue i have is that it would be nice to have some feedback on what the weights are for the influences on the selected vertices.

Yeah, that´s what I was thinking as well. It could be done like this: split the influence list down the middle and on the right side have a component editor-like UI happening. Could be made so you can hide/show the component editor in the UI, so it´s not always in your face. I might be able to work on it next week some time... not sure when.

Thanks for the feedback-
David

[asod]

Hey Guys
I saw you are talking about skinning. so I want youto see a script that i wrote special for the horrible task of skinning.
it's not like component editor but it's the best why to paint huge amount of joints.

Try it and tell me what you thing
asod@012.net.il

[R_K]

Thanks asod! i will check this out today. looks cool! i dont usually like to paint weights but this looks helpful.

r

[R_K]

DW,
got to thank you again for this tool. i can use it like rigid binding's edit membership tool now with those rmb additions.

thanks!
:thumbsup:

r

[dwalden74]

OK, just finished some more nice updates: Added a component editor to the UI, which works exactly like Maya´s own component editor, but only shows smooth skin info; added + and - buttons for weighting 100% to selected influences, or removing points completely from selected influences (previously available in RMB, now much easier); now when influences are selected in UI list, they are highlighted in Maya viewport (wicked!). Component editor and influence list can be resized/hidden by draggin the pane divider.

So far R_K has been the only one nice enough to give me feedback... it´s working pretty well now, so if anyone else cares to post some feedback I´d be happy to listen.

The only slightly confusing thing is that there´s a weight slider in the component editor, and another at the bottom of the UI- I think both have their place... hope that´s not too confusing for anyone...

BTW, does anyone actually find those "Select Parent" "Select Child" RMB menus useful?

Download the latest here (RMB "Save as"): dwSkinningTools (http://www.davidwalden.com/mel/dwSkinningTools.mel)

:beer:
David

[Navi]

Wow, sounds like a great tool. I'll have to give it a shot. I was just doing some skinning the other day. I'll download it and give it a shot. The select parent and child sounds helpful for skinning fingers. But I'm just guessing cause I haven't tried it yet. :D

Update: Just tried the skinning tool. Works great! Here's some things I thought of when I was using it.

Component Editor portion would be cool if it had the "load components" button on it. That way you could load the verts and have them stay.

Is there any way to change which joint affects the vertex? For example if you have a vertex associated with joints A, B and D but you want to change it to joints A, B, C. With the component editor listing all the joints I would just change it manually, but I was just wondering since the component editor you've incorporated into your tool only displays the affected joints, how do you achieve this.

A cool feature to have would to be able to transfer multiple weights at a time.

That's about all that I thought of. Another awesome tool to speed things up. I can almost have a whole shelf dedicated to your scripts. ;)

[ThomasMahler]

Hey David,

I just gave your little script a try - It seems very cool already, but I can't use the Component Editor column. No matter how many vertices I select it just won't update at all. Anyone else experienced that problem?

[Ejecta]

Originally posted by Thomas Mahler
Hey David,

I just gave your little script a try - It seems very cool already, but I can't use the Component Editor column. No matter how many vertices I select it just won't update at all. Anyone else experienced that problem?

Same thing here. Im using Maya 6

[R_K]

Navi-
if i understand your situation correctly you can change weights or joints affecting verts from the UI before this upgrade.

just select joint you want to add influence to and on the bottom toggle weight normalization off, click the absolute button, type in a weight amount and hit enter. all done! then you can go in and normalize the weights manually.

its basically the same as the component editor except the input area is on the bottom.

hope that helps.

Thanks again, Dave!

:bounce:

r

[Navi]

Wow this is even better than I thought! I guess that's what that slider was for. :blush: No more joint hunting through the component editor for me. :bounce: Thanks R_K for answering and thanks to David for writing the script. :thumbsup:


ps. Component Editor works fine for me on Maya 5

[dwalden74]

I can't use the Component Editor column. No matter how many vertices I select it just won't update at all.

Hmmm, looks like a v6 issue. I´ll look into it. Also, did anyone notice a bug with numeric insertion in the component editor? For me it doesn´t update correctly when I hit <return>.

Navi- What R_K suggests about adding influence IMO is a bit nicer than searching through the entire component editor editor with Show All Columns (that´s why I didn´t include that option). BTW, toggling weight normalize off isn´t even necessary for that. Also, don´t forget about Transfer Weights btn at the bottom - that was the feature I initially wrote this whole thing for. You said earlier something about being able to transfer multiple weights at a time - what do you mean?

[dwalden74]

Low and behold, component editor behavior has indeed changed from versions 4.5 - 5.0 - 6.0 . I´ve updated the script to handle these.

Latest version (RMB "Save As"): dwSkinningTools (http://www.davidwalden.com/mel/dwSkinningTools.mel)

Thanks for all the feedback. That update bug I mentioned seems to come and go- no idea what the deal is there...

-david

[Ejecta]

David,
No THANK YOU for your work and generosity of sharing your work. Your script has saved me a ton of time. Im using it with Asods Skinny script and developed a work flow that suits me very well. I really hated skinning in Maya but now it it is much less painful.

Again thanks to you and Asod!!

:beer:

[sporadic]

I'm still getting the feel for it, but it looks to be really useful. I'm still figuring out skinning in general though. Like Ejecta, I'm finding the combination of your tool and the Skinny script to be more powerful than either one alone. Any chance of you two 'joining forces' to integrate the two tools? ;)

[Navi]

You said earlier something about being able to transfer multiple weights at a time - what do you mean?

I think the best way is if I describe what I was doing. I screwed up on one of my legs and didn't notice that it was out of position until after I finished skinning and adjusting all the weigths. So what I did was added a new set of leg joints to the skin cluster and transfered the weights from the old leg to the new leg. Then I removed the old leg joints from the skin cluster and what I had left was a fixed leg without having to reskin the whole entire model. So in this instance being able to transfer weights from one list of joints to a second list of joints of the same hierarchy would have been a little easier. That way there's one long wait instead of short little waits inbetween.

Also, don´t forget about Transfer Weights btn at the bottom - that was the feature I initially wrote this whole thing for.

Yeah that was a misunderstanding on my part. I didn't fully understand all the functions of the script yet. But I was refering to only tranfering the weight of one single vertice, and not the weights of the entire group of vertices. I didn't realize the little slider did that if I selected an influence from the list. Yeah I know... what the heck was I thinking. :blush:

Thanks again for providing the script!

[dwalden74]

So in this instance being able to transfer weights from one list of joints to a second list of joints of the same hierarchy would have been a little easier.

Well, you can already do this via the proc:

dwSTTransferInfluence(string $inf1, string $inf2, string $skinCluster);

You´d have to call this proc for each pair of influences. The only problem with integrating multiple transfer directly into the UI is to have a clean and simple interface for it. Have any ideas?

BTW, glad you´re getting mileage out of the transfer feature; that´s something that´s been *real* handy on several occasions. Repositioning joints has never been so easy.

-d

PS: I did some further minor fixes this afternoon. You can always get latest versions directly on my website.

[dwalden74]

Any chance of you two 'joining forces' to integrate the two tools?

No, we have conflicting egos. Just kidding. :) Maybe. Hamish and I collaborated on attributeMan, and that worked pretty well. In the current case though, I would be a bit worried that the interface would just get too cluttered. My UI alone, IMO, is already a bit confusing. Perhaps we could put the tools on separate tabs in the same UI...? Not really sure. Also I don´t know that guy, nor have I used his script. I´ll have to take a looky.

-d

[sporadic]

The big differences I see are that yours has the mini-component editor, which is a huge help for figuring out which joints are affecting the vertex that's going all funky, and then fixing it. The other has the mini painting tools interface which is nice, and the set builder functions, which are really nice for making sure you have all the joints held while painting.

In fact, if you just added the last, I'd be really happy. ;)

[kryoboy]

i think it would be cool if you could select a cv or a group of them after clicking what bone u want to link them to inf the UI and Middle mouse drag to scale the percent of binding. The verts could change colors from blue being 0% to red being 100%.:thumbsup: The color Cvs would be toggled in the UI, and values can show in the mini componet editor for even closer tweaking.

Even cooler, u could select a joint in maya's prespective windows. hit tab or something that locks the joint selection and then grab a bunch of verts and Middle mouse drag to the ammount u need. Hit tab again to unlock selection.

that way u have the option of a fast and hands on way to create a very customized binding with visual feedback.

another on that topic. Imagine if you could lockin your forarm joint select the middle of the forearm areas Cvs, and grow a soft selection like tool that affects the ammount of influance of the bind for a quick start from scratch.
This would probably show Cvs changing colors from blue to red spreading from the selected Cvs while Middle mouse dragging. Selecting a face and doing this would automaticly start working with the faces vertices by converting selection to vertices, weather it was a face or edge u selected.:bounce:

i think im drooling on myself sorry.

also being able to save weights joint specificly would be awsome that way i can quickly load in and out diffrent weight sets for each bone and see the results. and be able to quickly go back to a setting i liked if i "fubar".
A ui aspect for this i would like would be to have a dropbox that grows with each save that changes depending on selected joint. select a save, it loads the weights for that joint, and i can get back to work.

*more drooling. elbow slips in drool and kryoboy hits jaw on desktop.*

i can see it now Dalwens Weight Tools.:love:

[dwalden74]

>i think it would be cool if you could select a cv or a group of them after
>clicking what bone u want to link them to inf the UI and Middle mouse drag
>to scale the percent of binding.

You can do this in the Set Weights options at the bottom: just highlight the influences in the list, select some points in the UI, and use either Absolute or Relative to add or subtract weight values (you can use control + MMB-drag to use absolute field as a slider :) ).

Most of the other suggestions you made would requite API work, which I don´t do (not yet at least).

Your Save Weights suggestion is interesting. I´ll consider that for a future update. Right now we´re combining AS_Skinny and dwSkinningTools into one mutha´ tool, so I want to get that working first.

cheers-
David

PS: Is there a Quote button in this trendy new CGTalk UI???

[kryoboy]

i have a more than decent background into programming i wish there was some infomation i could read about maya api programming, i would love to set something up in that nature.

I think the save wieght dropbox would be an awsome addition, allowing u to beable to make major adjustments and test them without any time loss if it was a bad move. also a quick way of testing diffrent combinations out with adjacent joints.

great tool by the way.

[ThomasMahler]

Great to hear that, David, sounds really awesome. You two should contact Alias after you finished that tool, would be great to see that in Maya 6.5. Skinning is _still_ a really, really painful job, your tool could ease the workflow a lot - I'd love to Beta Test, by the way! ;-)

[Ejecta]

>i think it would be cool if you could select a cv or a group of them after
>clicking what bone u want to link them to inf the UI and Middle mouse drag
>to scale the percent of binding.

You can do this in the Set Weights options at the bottom: just highlight the influences in the list, select some points in the UI, and use either Absolute or Relative to add or subtract weight values (you can use control + MMB-drag to use absolute field as a slider :) ).

Most of the other suggestions you made would requite API work, which I don´t do (not yet at least).

Your Save Weights suggestion is interesting. I´ll consider that for a future update. Right now we´re combining AS_Skinny and dwSkinningTools into one mutha´ tool, so I want to get that working first.

cheers-
David

PS: Is there a Quote button in this trendy new CGTalk UI???
Awesome! Yeah Im really into using both scripts together. Here is how Im working. I bind my skeleton using good joint placement, modeling for deformation, and setting the smooth bind options to get as good of a start as possible with Maya doing the binding. It seems to me 6 is better at this than I remember the last time I used Maya whaich has been awhile. Anyway, then I look for problem areas such fingers etc. Im on old LW guy so Im used to selecting a group of verts and then assigning them to the proper bone. I use Davids tool after I have selected the points I want, I turn off normalization and select all the bones on left and clear all influences using - button then I select the joint I want those verts connected too and then hit the + with a the "absolute" at a value of 1. When I've fixed all the areas I want I then turn on normalization and use Skinny to paint and smooth my weights to smooth out the deformation a bit. It works great for me. I used to HATE skinning in Maya and it's still not my fav but it is MUCHO better.

Again thanks and looking forward to the tools being together!

[dwalden74]

I finally got a working version of the combined tool up and running today. Asi is now doing some finishing touches on his side now. We can probably post it in a couple days.


I turn off normalization and select all the bones on left and clear all influences using - button then I select the joint I want those verts connected too and then hit the + with a the "absolute" at a value of 1.

Ejecta-

You don´t have to turn off normalization for this. Just select the points in the viewport, highlight the influences in the list, and hit the + button (normalization is accounted for in the procedure) - points are now weighted only to the highlighted influences. Also, the Set Weights (abs or rel) is unrelated to the + and - buttons...Set Weights is its own tool.

:beer:

[Ejecta]

I finally got a working version of the combined tool up and running today. Asi is now doing some finishing touches on his side now. We can probably post it in a couple days.




Ejecta-

You don´t have to turn off normalization for this. Just select the points in the viewport, highlight the influences in the list, and hit the + button (normalization is accounted for in the procedure) - points are now weighted only to the highlighted influences. Also, the Set Weights (abs or rel) is unrelated to the + and - buttons...Set Weights is its own tool.

:beer:
Oh very cool! Thanks for the info. I had a feeling I might be doing somethings in a bass ackwards way and I see now that I was. Looking forward to the update.:D

[liquidhalf]

Hey, I just found this thread. I'm very happy that you two are getting together on this skinning script. I can't wait to see what comes from it.

[dwalden74]

Hi all-

Here´s the first version of skinningTools, the joint effort of myself and Asi Sudai, creator of AS_Skinny:

skinningTools (http://www.davidwalden.com/mel/skinningTools.mel)(RMB "Save as")

Please give us your feedback! We are not totally agreeing on some of features in the Paint Weights section, so if you guys feel this area could be improved by adding/removing things, then please let us know. This will help us make a more robust tool for everyone.

:beer:
David

[Atwooki]

Thanks, David!
That'll definitely be worth interrupting what I'm doing right now to have a look at ;)

Atwooki

[Atwooki]

Excellent David! and thanks and praise to Asi Sudai also, of course:
A dream team come up with a 'mini-classic' - much needed, and not a moment too soon :)

Tested most functions on Maya 6, and updates fine, in both CE and Joints....
Sweet as a nut!
Any chance of putting this option in? (next to the red asterix' symbol)

http://www.custom3d.co.uk/bump_comb/skinTools.jpg

Thanks a bunch, guys!

Atwooki

[asod]

It's weird but It's my first appearance here...
Lately I'm stack at work to much so I carry a picture of my home, to show people I have one.

David is doing a great job with merging our tools into one UI.
Though it turns up to be heavier then I thought, it's still a time killer for skinning.
I still believe in a smaller UI to handle most of the Paint operations. Thus I'll keep releasing Versions of "Skinny".
But all the new Skinny features will be available in "SkinningTools".

So on HighEnd there is the Skinny version 1.7
A new menu "options". To Enable/Disable the Script Job for Auto Selection & Paint.
Reset All joints in scroll list.
Delete Key from All joints in scroll List.

[dwalden74]

OK, I´ve made some minor improvements based on the feedback I´ve received so far. If you guys have other ideas for improvements then post them!

:beer:
David

[asod]

I have feedback.
It would be greate if you'll add a button "Make Perfect Skin while I drink coffee".
can you do that?

a friend of my from the R&D said to me once: "if you don't complain about the tool, I won't improve it. And it will stay that way".

[Ejecta]

I have feedback.
It would be greate if you'll add a button "Make Perfect Skin while I drink coffee".
can you do that?

a friend of my from the R&D said to me once:


Yes!! I second that request for a "Make perfect skin button":bounce:

Oh come on you know you can do it.

[dwalden74]

Right, uhhhmm....I´m workin´ on it... gimme´a couple days... :)

[Ejecta]

Right, uhhhmm....I´m workin´ on it... gimme´a couple days... :)
I knew you could do it. :D

Anyway the new script is working very nicely.

[thematt]

Awesome work Davidjust test it and it work great..so far so good ..I haven't had a chance to use it in production but it will be a time saver for sure.

Cheers

[sporadic]

Ok, gotta say, this is *fantastic*. It's going to make skinning so much easier for me it's not going to seem painful. Ok, maybe merely unpleasant, but that's such a vast improvement that it's not even funny. Thanks guys!

That being said, I seem to have a problem with the Component Editor part of the UI, in that it doesn't seem to work for me. Maybe it's a 5.0 vs. 6 thing (I'm still on 5), but no matter how I pick y vertices, it doesn't seem to update the panel. There's just nothing.

Any clues what might be going wrong here?

[sporadic]

Got another one, though this could (again) be a 5.0/6.0 thing. If I enter a value into the value box in the Paint Weights panel, the box and slider update, but it doesn't update the paint tool, so I'm still painting whatever weight I had before. In other words, if the value was .5, and I change it to .8 by entering .8 in the box, then try and paint, I still get .5's.

Still ,great tool, if the bugs can be worked out.

[dwalden74]

Thanks for pointing out that slider big, sporadic. I´ve fix it in attachment. About the component editor not updating, other people have mentioned this as well. Macaronikazoo tells me that it did work correctly only after he deleted his preferences and restarted Maya with fresh prefs. Try renaming/removing your prefs temporarily and restart Maya to see if that fixes it. Otherwise I don´t know - for me and for many other people it works totally fine.:shrug:

:beer:
-david

[sporadic]

Yep, that fixed the problems. I'll have to see if I can track down what pref is causing the glitch (if I do, I'll let you know). I've had a lot of experience doing that, using diff and the like.

Noticed another minor bug, working with the tool last night (have I mentioned that I love it?). The joint rotate sliders don't update when you change joints, at least not for me. Also, when you click the 'Zero All', it zero's the value, but doesn't zero the actual joint (verified in the Channel Box), so the display doesn't update. This doesn't seem to be a problem with the Zero Current button.

Again, this may be a Maya version thing.

Hope this helps! Anything I can do to give feedback to improve this tool (I fully plan on dissecting some of the MEL) is worth it. Maya needs a tool like this.

[dwalden74]

I appreciate the bug finds sporadic. Definitely let us all know if you find which pref is causing the CE update problem.

The joint rotate sliders don't update when you change joints
Fixed it!

when you click the 'Zero All', it zero's the value, but doesn't zero the actual joint (verified in the Channel Box) I think I fixed it. :) Try this update and let me know. Note that it only zeroes-out joints, so if you have INF objs which are not joints, then this will not touch them. I´ve updated it so it only zeroes joints which are not locked and have no incoming connections from non-animCurves.

:beer:
David

[sporadic]

Ok, got it! After much hacking of rather large userPref files, I found that if I removed a single line, it would work. With the line in, it won't. The line is:

-iv "loadUrchin" 0

Don't ask me what this means. The only Urchins I found by searching the docs was the sea urchins in the Paint Effects tutorials. If you know, please let me know, as I'm curious. I can't guarantee that this will fix it for everyone, though.

As for the Zero All, I only have joints right now. I like to do a skinning pass with just the bind skeleton first, to figure out where other influence objects will be needed/evaluate what kinds, so that's ok. I do, however, have joints with single axis of rotation issues. If necessary, I'll just unlock them while skinning, but it'd be nice if the tool just ignored locked rotations, maybe printed a warning, and zero'd everything else.

I gotta run and do some *real* work (I hate how my work gets in the way of my life, sometimes), so I won't be able to download and play with the newest version until then. I'll let you know as soon as I do if there are any problems with the fixes.

[dwalden74]

Instead of removing that optionVar, try setting it to 1:

optionVar -iv "loadUrchin" 1;

Mine was set to 1, and I didn´t have problems. Of course, I tried it with a value of 0 and it worked fine anyway...:shrug:

About skipping over locked rotation attrs, the latest version should handle that fine.

-david

[sporadic]

Yeah, I'll try that too. What does that option do, anyway? If it still works even with it turned off for you, it must be some interaction with other fields.

[Andrei2k]

This is an amazing tool you created! I am wondering if there is a way from these posts and your own experience with the riggingTools to compile a short document with examples with what all the features can be used for.... I tries your tool for various tasks but I know I am missing other important uses.

To not burden you maybe others can post their particular uses/steps for certain practical applications...

[dwalden74]

I´d tried to document most of the features in the Help menu, so my best advice is to read through that first. I suppose just through using the tool a few times you´ll develop a workflow that suits you best. In terms of special techniques I´m afraid I have none at the moment. However as a general approach I would usually start out by using the + and - buttons together with the Set Weights, and after this basic weighting is nailed down, I´d go into Paint Weights and smooth it out a bit make sure I test all the rotations. The Component Editor figures somewhere into the equation, a little bit here and there I suppose... ;)

-d

[Atwooki]

Hi David
This Skinning Tool is simply great!
I've given it a minor battering on a (simple) character, and everything is working fine for me, including creating new influence sets, switching between Absolute/Relative weighting etc.
Thanks to both you and Asi for creating this 'Must have' tool - Indispensable :)

Working on M6 and XP, BTW.

Atwooki

[Ejecta]

Just out of curiosity do most mel scripts work on the OSX version of Maya too. Its just he plug ins that need to be compiled for OSX right?

[asod]

From my experience most Mel scripts would work, just commands related to Opertion System like file name paths and directory are different. Formal Maya commands would work fine.



Pluging are more composed/compiled to fit specific Opertion System.

[dwalden74]

Unless anyone has any further feedback/suggestions to give, I´m going to go ahead and post the latest release as version 1.0 on highend3d.

-d

[sporadic]

Ok, I got to play with the newest version, finally, and I must say, it's great. A few concerns:

1. There seems to be a glitch with Prune Weights. I hadn't mentioned it before, since it's, well, sporadic (pardon the pun), and I've not been able to figure out the when's and where's yet. I don't think this should delay the 'official' release, though.

2. This is a feature request, and it may be an impossible one. When adding vertices, the component editor tab automatically sorts them. This is troublesome, because I've got to somehow keep track of "this one was on this curve, and that one was on that row, and..." and I always forget. Having them ordered by selection order would make it much simpler. This is probably impossible, since Maya does some kinds of sorting automatically, but I figured it's worth asking.

3 It'd be nice if I could somehow highlight a particular vertex on the component editor and see it in the viewport without all the other vertices vanishing (maybe that's what the AutoUpdate checkbox does? I didn't think of trying that one when I was fighting this issue, and haven't had opportunity to go back).

4. It'd also be nice to have the joint rotation sliders accessible when in the component editor panel. I find myself flipping back and forth a lot. Again, that's likely to be a fairly large problem.

These are all minor problems, in my book, so you might as well call it final. Consider them 2.0 requests. ;)

[dwalden74]

I´ll have to take a look at the Prune Weights feature and see what´s up there...

About the component editor: not sure there´s much I can do there. It´s kind of a "pre-packaged" tool that we don´t have much control over :(

Joint rotation sliders: interesting idea. But where in the UI would they go? I could set up a tabLayout with Set Weights on one tab and Rotate Joint on another...?

thanks for the feedback
David

[sporadic]

Well, I typically am only working a few vertices at a time, so most of that panel is blank (in fact, the part where the joint rotates are on the Paint Weights tab)

My thought is to make it one of those folding menu items that you can open or close at the bottom... I'll have to look at the interface and think about how to set it up.

[dwalden74]

In case anyone´s interested, I´ve made a couple minor improvements this afternoon. Now there´s an Update button in the Component Editor when you have Auto Update turned off. When you select the Component Editor tab Maya will now automatically go into component mode. In the Rotate Joints frameLayout if you do a RMB click you can "tear off" a floating Rotate Joints UI window.

cheers-

[donvlatko]

damn good tool!!!!I love it a lot and something like this I need!

thanks man for this great tool!!!

[Atwooki]

A worthy update, David - Thanks a lot!

Time saving once again :)

Atwooki

[sporadic]

Yeah, I wish some other software vendors were as responsive to input as you. That's like a half dozen updates in a month.

[AWAKE]

skinningTools is the bomb. Thanks Dwalden74.

[ThomasMahler]

Just wanted to inform you that your skinningTools work fine with Maya 6.0.1 - The CE update problem of Maya 6 is fixed now!

Great, I'll use your skinningTools all the time, thanks David! :)

[mustique]

Thank you thank you thank you!

I'll tell my children and my grandchildren about the guys
who rescued me from the skinning hell! :thumbsup:

[mimo8]

I also want to get rescued, but I sit on a OSX machine and when I try to source the script I get a ton of error messages like:

// Error: line 1: Plug-in, "AM_Velvet_30.lib", was not found on MAYA_PLUG_IN_PATH. //
// Warning: line 1: Unrecognized node type for node 'Hip_Control:Foxy_Tail_FUR'; preserving node information during this session. //

or

// Error: "$ST_PSW_BrushesRCL" is an undeclared variable. //
// Error: -af $ST_PSW_BrushesRCL top 5

anyone knows?

[Octagon]

I also want to get rescued, but I sit on a OSX machine and when I try to source the script I get a ton of error messages like:

// Error: line 1: Plug-in, "AM_Velvet_30.lib", was not found on MAYA_PLUG_IN_PATH. //
// Warning: line 1: Unrecognized node type for node 'Hip_Control:Foxy_Tail_FUR'; preserving node information during this session. //

or

// Error: "$ST_PSW_BrushesRCL" is an undeclared variable. //
// Error: -af $ST_PSW_BrushesRCL top 5

anyone knows?


that´s really odd. skinningTools is a script and you´re getting plugin errors. I suggest you check your userSetup.mel and look for any wrong entries, you might also want to check your plug-in manager. You can also try to delete your preferences temporarily and see if this alleviates your problems.
I´ve seen lots of mac related problems with my own scripts as well, and it´s not funny. But the errors you get seem to be not MAC related.

-matthias

[Octagon]

I wanted to congratulate David and Asad to their impressive script! In terms of funcionality it´s absolutely great. But for weight painting I still like to use Asads skinny script, mainly because it doesn´t need as much screen space as skinning tools.
I made a screenshot to show where the skinningTools ui can be improved, in my opinion.
http://www.maze3d.de/postings/skinningtools.gif

Here´s a list of things that could be improved, I think:

- the skinCluster node textField takes away a too much screen space (also space thats unused to the right). I think it would be good to put the load skinCluster on the menuBar of the script. I know, this is not conventional at all, but it´s functional.

- the paint weights part of the ui can be compressed. Especially the paint mode buttons are too far apart and the opacity and value sliders dont need to have their label exposed in such a nice fashion. Val and Dis like in as_Skinny is better I think (i dont even use opacity, i paint everything with value)

- one important thing here: in as_Skinny as well as in skinningTools the textField value is limited to 1. (The min/max value fields are locked to maximum of 1 as well) This is bad because using values above 1 are highly useful to increase the influence of properly painted influences by using scaling paint mode with e.g. value of 1.2 (I do this often).

- flood button should be bigger I think. I like how asad did this in skinny. It´s not only bigger but has an icon which makes it easily differentiable from the other controls.

- I´m not sure about transfer weights buttons, but I feel that either it can be moved into the menuBar or the skinCluster update can be moved down to the buttons.
Transfer weights is kind of different than the rest of skinningTools funcionality which is mainly about modifying weights not really copying or transferring them. I know you started skinningTools with the transfer functionality in mind David, but theres still some merit to my argument I think now that the script has grown beyond its initial purpose.

- About the point influences... I think it would be better to have some part of the ui (or even in the viewport using headsUpDisplay) where you could always see the points influences. Maybe you can split the influence list optionally and display the point influences there?


Let me know what you think about my suggestions. And again, thanks for your great effort!
-matthias

[dwalden74]

Thanks for the suggestions Mattias. At the moment I don't have time to work on a public update, although hopefully that'll change in a few weeks.

:beer:
David

[Blazer]

Tried using this on a projects, using Maya 6.0, and the undos would consistantly screw up the waights. Basically, the undo was rendered hazardous and thsu useless. It's as if by undoing all the waights would get distributed, in spite of max influence and normalized waights.

[R_K]

just another thought. didn't see anyone else bring this up. the one thing that kills me with the component editor is long ass text fields. i added one line to your script that disabled the show path names option that is in the component editors menu. Its near the end of the script. I grabbed a chunk of it so people could find it if they wanted to. Thanks Dave.

...
string $editor = `componentEditor

-mainListConnection $selConnect

-operationType $operationType

-lockInput 0

-hideZeroColumns 1

-hpn 1 // NEW LINE

ST_CE`;


Thanks Dave.

r

Blazer - I have had that happen in maya 5 using the interfaces own tools. don't think it is the result of this script.

r

[slayerment]

Wow, this is great! Extremely helpful :). Thanks much!

[asod]

Hi All

I've add some new features to Skinny hope you found usefull

-I've add "MeshSmooth" to see the model hi-rez while skinning. The smooth divisions connected to Skinny menuItem for easy… try this I think it's very usfull to workflow.



-I've change the auto paint on selection to a simple and easy "Skinny Active" checkbox. Much more comfortable.

-I've add Save/load Sets to file, if you want to backup you set before deleting joint or some other changes. You can find this under preset/set menger…


Download here:
http://www.highend3d.com/files/?group=melscripts&section=artisan
This version isn't final I have some more feature that I want to add…

Fell free to send feedbacks

[Firas]

asod, thats just great .. thankx.

[Octagon]

-I've change the auto paint on selection to a simple and easy "Skinny Active" checkbox. Much more comfortable.


I have another suggestion. It would be quite useful to make an optionVar for your autoPaint switch I think. This is really a matter of user preference whether your're using autoPaint or not and as such making it an optionVar will make sure everyone is satisfied with skinnys settings after launching it (I personally hate autoPaint and I hate to hit that disable autoPaint button each and every time I launch skinny :> )

-matthias

[gago]

the problem with these two scripts are that they dont let me weight groups of vertices, which is what i do most of the time with Maya's paint weight tool(Rather than using Component editors, i flood with vertices selected). so i'll end up switching back to Maya's PaintWeight tool again and again...

[dwalden74]

The Set Weights section of skinningTools was designed specifically for quickly assigning a weight value to a point selection. Just highlight the influences in the list, select the points in the viewport, and enter a value into the Absolute float field in the UI. Alternatively you can weight points by a percentage amount using the float slider.

I'm currently in the process of making many updates to this tool. It'll take some time, so if you have any suggestions please pass them my way.

cheers-
David

[greenSloth]

First, I got to say thank you, David!!
In my current project, I need to paintweight more than 30 low-res game characters.
and our JP client changes the models all the time even they were approved already...
If copy-weight function doesnt work well, I need to paint them again...
anyway, if I use maya build-in paintweight tool, I would have spent too much time on this boring paintweight job.
This tool really saves my ass!!

I have a suggestion here. Is it possible to fix undo of "Rotate Joints" in Paint Weights tab?
I mean, for example, I slide Y axis to 50 in Rotate Joints. then I hit undo, the joint will go back to 49 instead of 0. Yes, there is "Zero Current Joints" button. but in some cases, for example, I adjust weights first and I use sliders in Rotate Joints to check if the weight is right. If I dont have enough undo I wont be able to get back the weights before I adjust it.

This tool is wonderful, it is the painkiller for paintweight.

regards,
greenSloth

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