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tonygib
11-15-2002, 11:10 AM
I have started to really progress with my new human character and am getting to the point of thinking about how the animation rig will be set-up. Right now I am having a problem with how to use the skin modifer on a multi-object character. As you can see the current state of the modelling below, some of the clothes will basically need the same skin (vertex) assignments as the main body. The skirt isn't a problem, as that will be moved by a cloth simulator (Simcloth is the most likely one at the moment), however the other clothes give rise to a couple of questions:

1. Under the clothes is still a full model, which will be animated with a character rig using the skin modifer on the bones setup. Now the thing is, if I spend my time seting up the skinning for say the bones that will control the top half of the character, then for the most part those same bones should have the same effect on the clothes top, since that Top is pretty well skin tight, as the under lying body moves, it should move much the same. So I am wondering what you do, is it a case of a skin modifer on both objects, using the same bones and ten bassically adjusting the vertices manually till things are pretty well the same or am I missing something?

2. The answer to 1 partly leads to question two, in that what do you do if the same character will have different/extra clothes over the course of an animated project. Thats the reason why I want to skin the under lying body, with the hope that there is some way to then add different clothes and have them "use" the base skinning without the need to manually skin each addition clothing to match the body skinning.

So, in a nut shell, how do you handle the skinning of a character with multiply objects that may change over time?
thedaemon
11-15-2002, 11:18 AM
on objects that dont flex ie metal, I would just attach to a bone. But for cloth over clothes I would put a skin modifier on the clothes and set up the weights. posing my model to see how they work. :airguitar I wish there was an easier way, or I wish I knew of it.
tonygib
11-15-2002, 12:00 PM
daemon: so in effect it is as I feared, a skin modifer on both the body and tight fitting clothes and then having to adjust and tweak the vertices on both till I get something that works. Guess thats why most CGI characters never change clothes.
Iain McFadzen
11-15-2002, 12:29 PM
As long as you control the weighting in the areas which are clothed with envelopes alone you shouldn't have to do the work twice (a torso shouldn't require vertex-specific weighting, wheras a hand probably would but would never be covered in clothing).
thedaemon
11-15-2002, 12:46 PM
u could also attach the objects to the human's mesh, and just use one skin modifier. Doing so, u could perhaps delete the actual body that isnt being seen and skin just the clothes. Your decision though. :wip:
Mahlon
11-15-2002, 09:30 PM
Or, alternatively, you could model the cloths into the character. That's probably the most used method for tight fitting clothes. If you do want to keep the clothes and skind seperate, I'd go for attaching the bra to the body and then skinning from there with one modifier.

Mahlon
tonygib
11-16-2002, 01:50 AM
Hi guys,

Yeah I know that if only the envelopes are adjusted and not hand adjusting the vertices then its a pretty simple copy and paste. That will most likely work for some but at the top of the shoulder, around the neck and under the arms I can see that manual adjustments will most likely be needed.

I always knew I could just make the clothes as attached elements, in effect having just one big single object, but that then means a very large multi-object material and makes any swapping of clothes next to impossible.

O'well, I kinda figured that there wasn't going to be an easy answer to this, at least not one that lets you eat your cake and have it too.

Thanks for the feedback
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