Skining Tutorials

[MDuffy]

I don't know of any tutorials off hand, but generally I use the component editor to set my skin weights. Under Component Editor->SkinClusters, uncheck List->Show All Columns. Now when you select verts it will only show the influences that affect those verts. Work with a few verts at a time, or a ring at a time. In general you should only have a few influences on each vert, and if anything is influencing less than say 5-10% then the influence is too little to worry about. Use Skin->Edit Smooth Skin->Prune Small Weights to get rid of those small values. Also you can usually weight just one side of a symetrical mesh, and then mirror the weights to the other side. Also don't ever use Maya's built in bitmap based method of saving and restoring weights; get the saveWeights script that Big Idea released on Highend3D.com and use that instead.

Weighting a character is tedious no matter what. You just have to find the tool that make the job a little faster, and then buckle down and do it.

Hope this helps,
Michael Duffy
mduffy@ionet.net

[Goob]

a good idea is to work downwards the hierarchy and use replace only with a value of 1.
in critical parts like the shoulder or the hips / legs (especially on a naked character) you can use blend shapes in combination with driven keys.
I am going to write a skinning tutorial for the company where I am employed. I post the link next week.


goob.

[Clanger]

MDuffy/Goob
Thanks that's a great help, will put sugestions into practice.

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