• Maya

Tips for skin weighting

Try out these best practices for skin weighting, including pruning small weights and backing up weights, to help you achieve optimal results in your rigging process.


00:04

So here we have a fully weighted model

00:07

at this stage. I would say this is a first pass on the skin weights.

00:12

They aren't final just yet,

00:14

but they are good enough that we can continue with the rigging process.

00:19

The good thing about the waiting is that we can

00:21

continue to tweak the values as we build the rig

00:24

and also after it's finished.

00:26

So don't worry if they aren't perfect just yet.

00:31

I have a few final tips

00:34

first. It's a good idea to use a prune small weights tool from time to time.

00:39

This can be found here under the skin menu.

00:42

This will remove any weights under a set value.

00:45

So here it will remove any that are under 0.01.

00:50

These are super small influences. So it's best to clear them out.

00:54

All may I will do is take any weights

00:56

under this value and redistribute them to the surrounding joints

01:02

next.

01:03

And you should probably do this right at the end

01:05

of the rigging process once the rig is final,

01:08

but remove any unused influences.

01:12

Now, unreal will ignore any joints that don't have any weight values.

01:17

So it's not essential

01:18

but it's just good housekeeping.

01:21

Finally back up, the weights

01:24

simply go to deform export weights to save them.

01:28

Having a backup is essential because you never know you might inadvertently

01:32

break the skin whites or which has often happened to me,

01:36

the whites just go wild for no reason.

Video transcript

00:04

So here we have a fully weighted model

00:07

at this stage. I would say this is a first pass on the skin weights.

00:12

They aren't final just yet,

00:14

but they are good enough that we can continue with the rigging process.

00:19

The good thing about the waiting is that we can

00:21

continue to tweak the values as we build the rig

00:24

and also after it's finished.

00:26

So don't worry if they aren't perfect just yet.

00:31

I have a few final tips

00:34

first. It's a good idea to use a prune small weights tool from time to time.

00:39

This can be found here under the skin menu.

00:42

This will remove any weights under a set value.

00:45

So here it will remove any that are under 0.01.

00:50

These are super small influences. So it's best to clear them out.

00:54

All may I will do is take any weights

00:56

under this value and redistribute them to the surrounding joints

01:02

next.

01:03

And you should probably do this right at the end

01:05

of the rigging process once the rig is final,

01:08

but remove any unused influences.

01:12

Now, unreal will ignore any joints that don't have any weight values.

01:17

So it's not essential

01:18

but it's just good housekeeping.

01:21

Finally back up, the weights

01:24

simply go to deform export weights to save them.

01:28

Having a backup is essential because you never know you might inadvertently

01:32

break the skin whites or which has often happened to me,

01:36

the whites just go wild for no reason.

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