rigging question

[Ayreon]

I use weightmap only all the time. Make sure that every point is assigned to a weightmap. It takes a lot of practice to get right, but once you get the hang of it, it works like a charm. One advice I can give you if you're serious about chracter animation is to get the following book: LightWave 3D 7.0 Character Animation by Timothy Albee.
It covers everything you need to know. I recently puchased it, and I can tell you, it's worth every penny!

Good luck!

Ayreon

[Mike RB]

And i never use it, goes to show theres more then one way of doing things. :)

[Eugeny]

I found "use weight map only" very useful, becose it give for u better control of mesh. May be your problem is "waight normalisation" - its workdifferent on 7.0b and 7.5 ? In 7.5 u have the new ficher "faster bones" that normally conflict with "waight normalisation" so dont use both of them.
Did anyone feel some empruvment on the speed of bones? Even with subpatch 0 its ru absolutley the same on my machine (i have oxigen GVX 210 and dual P III 800):annoyed:

[yahll]

Nop, I never had that need, but It's perfectly valid


You should be careful if you paint your weights, because It's very easy to paint other parts of the mesh.

[Tudor]

I usually set up one weightmap for the body, one for each arm, each hand, each finger, each leg, each foot, and the head.
That is enough for me. Allows me to use joint compensation and such without problems aswell as adding muscle bones.
I'm so used to the old way of using bones as holders that this seems like is the best of 2 worlds.

[Tstokes]

Mike RB,
Are you saying you don't use weight maps at all? I am not a character setup wizard but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night. Just kidding. I went to the Lightwave seminar with Larry "Splinegod" Schultz and Lee Stranahan and they taught us not to use weight maps unless they are absolutely necessary. He proceed to do a nice demo using bones only, no weightmaps. I just got the aforemented Timothy Albee book and he uses weightmaps so there must be a reason why! My thought is that it is a lot less work to not use weight maps but if you have to use them, then by all means do.


Tom

[Chewey]

I get the impression that the seminar is geared at the newbie and mid level experience LWaver.

[Tstokes]

Chewey,
You are correct.

[Tudor]

I'm working with Maya at work, LW at home.
Being able to have several bones sharing one weightmap must be the best thing ever to happen to character skinning.
It is a pain to skin in Maya compared to Lightwave..
Or maybe it is just me that suck at Maya.

It is just so simple to isolate the arms so that they don't influence the chest an such without having to have a separate weightmap for each bone. No problem with weight normalization either. If 2 maps have 100% of a point they just act like normal LW bones without weightmaps at all.

[Ayreon]

Tstokes,

I see you got the book! I've read it back to front before beginning building my own rig, just to understand the method used in the book. And I have to say that once I read it, it made a lot of sence. The rig is very sofisticated (don't know if I spelled that right :) )
but easy to setup. The weightmaps are a lot easier to setup then I thought it would be! I know it's possible to rig a character without using weightmaps. I guess there are alot of different ways, but the method used in the book really fits my workingstyle I guess.
I always wondered about Larry shultz's seminars. Were they good and did you learn alot, because for the price he asks for a seminar I can buy a lot of books!! I would really like to know how it was, because I got a mail from Larry a few days ago about his new seminars and video's, and the price just made my jaw drop to the floor. My chin still hurts :)
Well, enough questions and rambling. I hope you enjoy the book as much as I do.

Ayreon

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