Optimum skin weights for use on a "smooth binded" model in maya?

[jjws888]

So, in order to rig a model for SL in maya 2010, you "smooth bind" a model to the skeleton.

But if you just do that without changing anything, your armpits concave into your model's torso and your elbows bend in a way that make them look like wacky inflatable arm flailing tubemen.

This is what I'm trying to figure out how to fix here.

I asked a friend about this a long while ago, and he suggested I move the shoulder and upper arm joints together. That helped, but the results varied radically in quality.

So I decided to randomly browse the mesh section here and 2 words came up a lot, "skin weights". I know what those were, but I've never dealt with them before. So I thought, this was a vital component I was missing, I never set any particular skin weights so that's probably why my rigs always look so poor.

So now I come to you, mesh section of the SL forums, to ask these questions:

1) Does anyone know the best weight for each joint, and if so, what are they? Is there a download or a diagram I could follow?

2) How do you edit skin weights in maya exactly? (I'm more of a 3DS Max guy :matte-motes-delicious:)

 

If anybody could help me answer these questions, I'd be more than happy to pay you back somehow in-world.

 

Oh and please, please please oh please, I just want a little assistance, no 9 paragraph pretentious answers please, I get that a lot on here and it's not necessary.

 

And if in fact I'm wrong and skin weights have no ability to fix the problems I had just described, please just tell me and disregard this post.

[Cathy Foil]

Yes you should be able to fix those problems with proper weighting of the skin around those joints.

Here is a link to a wonderful video on how to rig or skin a dress and export it to SL.

http://saeluan.net/tutorials/maya/rigging-a-mesh-in-maya/#comment-99

If you want to see how the default SL avatars are weighted you can download them here:

https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/STORM-1716?

They are in the Attachments section.

Hope that helps.

Cathy

[Chosen Few]

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jjws888 wrote::

1) Does anyone know the best weight for each joint, and if so, what are they? Is there a download or a diagram I could follow?

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Sorry, but there's no way to answer that question.  There can be no such thing as a "best weight for each joint".  That's just not how it works.  Weights represent the relationship betwen each joint and each vertex on your model.  If your model has 10,000 vertices, then each joint has 10,000 weights.  No weight is any better or worse than any other weight.  They all simply exist.

 

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jjws888 wrote:

2) How do you edit skin weights in maya exactly? (I'm more of a 3DS Max guy :matte-motes-delicious:)

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As much as I'd like to, I can't answer that question exactly for you, because you made it clear that if the answer is at all lengthy, you won't be intereted in reading it.  You're asking about a gigantic subject, and there's absolutely no way to explain it in just a few words, like you seem to want.   Again, I have to say that that's not how this works.

Ordinarily, I'd suggest you read the rigging section of your User Guide in your Maya help file, since it covers all the basic things you need to know, and since it's so easily found, listed plain as day as a major topic in the table of contents.  But I can't do that either, since it's got way more than nine paragraphs in it.  All I can say, without going over your sub-nine-paragraph requirement is that Maya has all kinds of ways of eding skin weights, just as it has all kinds of ways for doing literally every single thing it does. 

Here's a quick tip.  When you bound the skin to the skeleton in the first pace, you must have clicked on the Skin menu, in order to get to the Bind Skin and Smooth Bind commands, right?  Did you happen to notice, a little ways down in that same menu, the words "Edit Smooth Skin"?  Hint, hint, when something says "Edit Smooth Skin", chances are pretty good that it's for editing smooth skins.

Of all the items on the Edit Smooth Skin menu, the Paint Skin Weights tool is the most immedate workhorse.  But everything else on there is equally important, so you should learn about all of it.  Also, there are all kinds of other, even more fundamental things you need to know how to do, beyond just the finding of tools.  Topologizing your model properly for animation, and UV'ing it well for weight mapping, for example, are both huge subjects, before you even get into using any of those tools at all.  There are also other things, found elsewhere in Maya, that are invaluable, like the Component Editor, for example.

 

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jjws888 wrote:

Oh and please, please please oh please, I just want a little assistance, no 9 paragraph pretentious answers please, I get that a lot on here and it's not necessary.

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If you think nine paragraphs is a lot to read, then frankly you've got no business trying to learn how to rig anything at all.  It takes a hell of a lot more than that to even begin to explain the fundamentals of what you need to know.  Commit to learning in full, or don't bother.

Whatever you do, don't chastise those of us who volunteer CONSIDERABLE amounts our time writing out detailed explanations, for YOUR benefit.  If you're too lazy to read the information you need to know, that doesn't make the rest of us pretentious.  It just makes you deliberately ignorant, which is an awfully silly thing to be.  Don't be silly, be competent. 

This post was just eight paragraphs (including this lone sentence), so I trust you had no trouble reading it.

 

[Sae Luan]

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Cathy Foil wrote:

Here is a link to a wonderful video on how to rig or skin a dress and export it to SL.

http://saeluan.net/tutorials/maya/rigging-a-mesh-in-maya/#comment-99

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Oops.. except my tutorial video is a wee bit lengthy, it may be too much to listen to!

Lol.. seriously, like Chosen said, if you are not interested in taking the time to read more than 9 paragraphs, rigging and weighting may not be for you.  To learn, I read through tons of information, and I watched tons of lengthy videos just to familiarize myself with the how tos.  There's no way to explain even the basics without getting lengthy, unless we were just to say, go to Skin->Edit Smooth Skin->Paint skin weights tool, and good luck figuring it out.

No offense, but it doesn't seem to me you are too serious about learning if you aren't willing to take the time to have it explained to you properly.  Good luck in your search though.