• Maya

Binding the model to the skeleton

Apply the desired skin weight options to the selected model, bind the model to the skeleton, then make additional adjustments with the help of a heat map as reference.


00:03

So let's now bind our model and look at what other

00:06

options are available to you to edit the skin weights.

00:11

So I want heat map,

00:13

I'm going to change weight distribution to neighbor.

00:17

I'll also set the fall off. So it's around the default value again. So 0.65

00:23

we will select the head model this time too. So that also gets bound.

00:27

OK. Apply that

00:30

let it calculate

00:32

and that's done.

00:34

Just do some quick tests to see how it deforms.

00:40

Ignore the eyes for now,

00:42

they will be skinned but they only need to be influenced by the eye joints.

00:46

OK? Looks good.

00:49

So here we have our skin cluster node.

00:52

There are a few options we can change in here

00:56

like how the weights are normalized.

00:58

We will leave that though

01:00

the envelope is a good attribute to be aware of.

01:03

Let's say I have a character posed,

01:06

but I need to see the model back in its default pose.

01:09

Maybe I'm working on some blend shapes. For example,

01:13

I can simply set envelope to zero.

01:16

This essentially turns off the skin cluster's influence.

01:20

OK. So

01:22

as good as heat map is,

01:23

there may be some joints that got ignored like this twist joint,

01:28

it doesn't seem to be attached to a skin cluster.

01:31

So we need to add those to the main skin cluster too. So they influence the model.

01:35

And so we can adjust their weights.

01:38

Let's check the other twist joints.

01:40

OK. This isn't connected,

01:43

ah, that one is

01:47

this one is

01:50

and so is this one

01:51

probably because the model is thicker in these areas.

01:54

This one isn't

01:57

all this.

01:59

Oh this one. So let's add that to the selection.

02:02

With those selected, we just add the model to the selection and go to skin

02:07

edit, influences, add influence and open the options.

02:12

I'll reset this.

02:14

So this will essentially add these joints to the current skin cluster.

02:19

If I apply this now

02:21

and move one of the new joints,

02:24

you see it's influencing the model,

02:27

but it's overwritten the weight values that were there before.

02:30

So if you'd spent an hour working on the weight, those would be lost.

02:35

Not only that,

02:36

but it means you now have a lot more work to do to clean this up.

02:40

OK. Let's undo that.

02:43

What I prefer to do when adding influencers is to use the lock weights option

02:49

and set the default weight to zero.

02:52

This will add the joints to the skin cluster

02:54

but not affect any waiting values that currently exist.

02:59

You see the joint doesn't affect the model yet,

03:02

but it is now attached to the skin cluster node.

03:07

And we have also maintained the weights we had previously.

Video transcript

00:03

So let's now bind our model and look at what other

00:06

options are available to you to edit the skin weights.

00:11

So I want heat map,

00:13

I'm going to change weight distribution to neighbor.

00:17

I'll also set the fall off. So it's around the default value again. So 0.65

00:23

we will select the head model this time too. So that also gets bound.

00:27

OK. Apply that

00:30

let it calculate

00:32

and that's done.

00:34

Just do some quick tests to see how it deforms.

00:40

Ignore the eyes for now,

00:42

they will be skinned but they only need to be influenced by the eye joints.

00:46

OK? Looks good.

00:49

So here we have our skin cluster node.

00:52

There are a few options we can change in here

00:56

like how the weights are normalized.

00:58

We will leave that though

01:00

the envelope is a good attribute to be aware of.

01:03

Let's say I have a character posed,

01:06

but I need to see the model back in its default pose.

01:09

Maybe I'm working on some blend shapes. For example,

01:13

I can simply set envelope to zero.

01:16

This essentially turns off the skin cluster's influence.

01:20

OK. So

01:22

as good as heat map is,

01:23

there may be some joints that got ignored like this twist joint,

01:28

it doesn't seem to be attached to a skin cluster.

01:31

So we need to add those to the main skin cluster too. So they influence the model.

01:35

And so we can adjust their weights.

01:38

Let's check the other twist joints.

01:40

OK. This isn't connected,

01:43

ah, that one is

01:47

this one is

01:50

and so is this one

01:51

probably because the model is thicker in these areas.

01:54

This one isn't

01:57

all this.

01:59

Oh this one. So let's add that to the selection.

02:02

With those selected, we just add the model to the selection and go to skin

02:07

edit, influences, add influence and open the options.

02:12

I'll reset this.

02:14

So this will essentially add these joints to the current skin cluster.

02:19

If I apply this now

02:21

and move one of the new joints,

02:24

you see it's influencing the model,

02:27

but it's overwritten the weight values that were there before.

02:30

So if you'd spent an hour working on the weight, those would be lost.

02:35

Not only that,

02:36

but it means you now have a lot more work to do to clean this up.

02:40

OK. Let's undo that.

02:43

What I prefer to do when adding influencers is to use the lock weights option

02:49

and set the default weight to zero.

02:52

This will add the joints to the skin cluster

02:54

but not affect any waiting values that currently exist.

02:59

You see the joint doesn't affect the model yet,

03:02

but it is now attached to the skin cluster node.

03:07

And we have also maintained the weights we had previously.

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