Maya Error When Exporting Rigged Mesh

[Sae Luan]

I decided to give mesh clothing another shot recently, and I'm encountering an error when I go to export my rigged mesh.  I downloaded a skeleton here on the forums, and initially when I used it, the mesh exported fine, but the include skin weight option was greyed out in SL, and upon inspection of the skeleton, it was named with a prefix, so I had to change each joint name.  Once I did that, I saved the skeleton so I wouldn't have to do it again.  However, now when I use the skeleton, I get the following error upon export from Maya--

While reading or writing a file the following notifications have been raised.

Warning: Null not supported by COLLADA. Node BasicSkeleton_avatar1 will lose its geometric information. The node transforms will be saved.

I went ahead and tried to upload the mesh anyway hoping it would upload in SL.  The mesh shows up just fine, I'm able to select include skin weight, but the upload fails.

Thinking maybe I needed to freeze and reset transformations on the skeleton, I did that and also deleted the history.  I still encounter the same error.

I also tried exporting as .fbx and running it through the FBX converter to convert it to a .dae, and again the upload fails into Second Life.

Wanted to make sure it wasn't the mesh clothing itself messing up, so I created a quick new test mesh, and still getting the same error :(

Now I'm at a loss, and I hope someone can help me figure out when I'm getting this error when I export.

Thank you.

 

[Cathy Foil]

Hi Sae,
A little while back a number of us replied to Maya rigging problems someone was having.  Here is a link to that topic.

http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Mesh/Please-help-me-ASAP-Rigging-and-Joint-question/td-p/1388975/highlight/true

 

One thing you will want to check is the names of the bones of the skeleton you are using.  If you import the skeleton instead of opening up the file Maya changes the names of the bones which will mess up the DAE file and not upload to SL properly.  Here is a link to the correct bone names of all the bones in the skeleton.

http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Mesh/Joint-names/td-p/810861

All the bones should be named like  mPelvis and mTorso.  If even a single bone is misspelled or not have the right upper and lower case letters or is missing the whole thing won't work.

I hope that helps.

Cathy

[Sae Luan]

Ok, that may well be the issue because I belive I probably imported the skeleton onto the mesh clothing in Maya.  

I'll have to go back and find where I initially downloaded the skeleton because aparently I accidentally saved over the original file.  For the life of me, I cannot get the skeleton that Chosen Few always links to to work for me, so I had found a different skeleton here.  

WHen I use the one Chosen links to, it exports great, but include skin weights is ALWAYS greyed out.  I make sure all of the obvious things are done, as in, remove unused influences is unchecked inside Maya, I select each joint by hand starting from the toes and working my way up to the skull, and I've made sure each joint is named correctly.  I wish I could figure out why that skeleton does not work for me, since I'm sure it does work since so many use it.  I must be doing something wrong in the rigging process, but I've followed every step cautiously numerous times, and just keep having the issue that include skin weights is not available.  Am I selecting the joints in the wrong order?

[Sae Luan]

Ok, I FINALLY got it working

Now, I'm back using the skeleton Chosen Few links to.  Just in case anyone else has issues, I'll post exactly how I did it.

 

1. Once mesh is created, save and close mesh file.  Open (do not import) your skeleton.
2. Import mesh into your scene.
3. Select your mesh and delete the history from it.
4. If outliner is not already open, open it.  Select each joint (while holding shift) in the outliner starting with the low heirarchy and work your way up to the pelvis.
5. After you select each joint, while holding down shift, select the mesh.
6. Go to Skin->Bind Skin->Smooth Bind Options.
7. Make sure under Bind To that you have Select Joints chosen and not Joint Heirarchy.
8. Also make sure Remove Unused Influences is NOT checked.
9. Now press Bind Skin button on the options window.
10. Paint your weighting by going to Skin->Edit Smooth Skin->Paint Skin Weights Tool
11. Select mesh, export selected as a collada file, and upload into Second Life!

 

Thanks to everyone who has ever helped me with this issue, sometimes all it takes is a fresh night of sleep and retracing each set of instructions you were EVER given lol.  

[Cathy Foil]

You're welcome Sae!!!

I am so happy you got it to work and awesome job you did on breaking the steps down and posting them!

[Voodoo Schnyder]

I cant thank you enough!

[Sae Luan]

I have since done a video tutorial outlining the steps...for anyone else who finds this.

http://saeluan.com/tutorials/maya/rigging-mesh-in-maya/

[Cry Hawker]

I have almost the same problem. I repeat step by step what you are doing Sae but its not working. The option of skin weights and joints is greyed out. I tried different skelletons, tried another Maya version. I tried fbx, collada, converting...no idea what this is.

[LilyTheChubbyMoo]

ive just tried clicking that link to watch the video as i am not only stuck but completely dumbfounded and need a visual guide to follow. but the link goes nowhere.

[arton Rotaru]

It moved a couple of times over the years.

http://cutepoison.net/tutorials/maya-tutorials/rigging-mesh-in-maya/