Hi all,
Almost everyone has at some point found a problem in their rig during the skinning and probably after having painted some weights.Painting weights
is a very laborious process.Especially when you’re not experienced you have to redo things many times till you get them right.As if that wasn’t enough
after having painted some parts to be satisfying you realize you have to detach the geometry to fix sth on the rig.At this point you need a plan to
avoid redoing all those weights.There are some ways about but not everything works for various reasons i’m too much of a newbie to be able to explain.
So this is a gathering of ways to avoid redoing the weights.
A)Detach Skin Options(this is the quickest way)
Maya has predicted this might happen so they’ve included an option in the Detach Skin [].
Instead of deleting History you choose to keep it.Thus the geometry keeps the weights info and when you rebind the skeleton with the geometry
all the weights you had previously painted will remain.
In my case though detaching with keeping History selected crashed Maya and from my experience with Maya crashes this will probably happen everytime if it
happens at all.If this doesn’t happen to you you’re most fortunate since this is the quickest way.
B)Weight Maps
You can export weights information for each joint or influence object in separate files.If you have a different character who has the same rig and more or less
the same physiology you don’t need to do the weights from scratch.You can just import the weight maps from the last character you finished.Or you can use this
to backup the weights,unbind,do the corrections,rebind and load the weight map to resume the weight painting.
On the other hand,sometimes this doesn’t work.For example when I tried it the loaded weights were totally wrong.After a bit of research I found this might be
because of sth to do with UV Maps.Who knows.
C)The Import solution or Copy Weights
This is the only way I’ve found to be able to copy/backup/etc weights to avoid redoing them that actually works.But it is required to have backup files.I personally
prefer having different components(the term used very loosely) in separate files.For example I like to have the rig with the IKs and controls in one file,the geometry
in another.So when I bump into a problem I make a new scene and import both the rig and the geometry.Bind them and then import the last version of the character I was
working on.Then i select the geometry of the last version as a source,select the new version’s geometry as a destination and use Skin->Edit Smooth Skin->copy weights tool[].
It’s important to choose the correct options.Since we have two versions of the same character one on top of the other it’s a good idea to use options that copy weights
by using the vertices as references.We want Closest Point on Surface for the Surface Association option and One to One for Influence associations.As a result the weights are
copied from a vertex to another.Imho it’s the safest and most reliable way since I haven’t had any crashes or other kinds of problem in Maya.
D)MEL or even python scripts
I tried some but none worked for me or the modules had some problem I don’t know but for some of you this might work.I can’t suggest any since none worked for me but those of
you that can suggest some please notify me and we can make a list with pros and cons maybe or just list them.
E) Use Softimage and change the rigged mesh as much as you like, yet it keeps all the information (thanks to mattmos)
F) Use Softimage and GATOR all your rigging information over to a completely new mesh at the press of a button.(thanks to mattmos)
If you can suggest any other way to do this please tell me and I’ll include it in the OP.We need this to be as organised and compact as it can be with lots of
alternatives.
Also a word of advice,for newbies mostly.Take it from a fellow newbie who’s been saved from it,working with separate files for components and using them to make the files you’ll be working on
is a very safe way to work.For a bit of extra work to update the necessary files each time you need to fix sth you ensure that you won’t lose any work and most times
you won’t be compelled to redo work.It might be possible to avoid this even when using a single file for the character but it depends on the problem and the expertise of the
user.Let’s say that you have one file for the rig and one for the geometry and then another where you’ve imported the rig and geometry and bound them and skinned them.If sth happens
and can’t be fixed in that file you can always create a new scene,import the rig and geometry again with any kind of alterations you might make and import the file you couldn’t fix
to transfer any kind of info you don’t want to lose from it and continue from there.
I hope my english won’t affect your understanding of my point.
