Changing Blender 2.6 interface and RIgging.

[LisaMarie McWinnie]

Hello.I made a mesh dress on blender 2.6,but rigging is being a problem.I tried using Weight Paint to fix,but still I can't get a good result.

You see how the skirt and top are moving with the arm?How can I fix it,and make a decent rigging?

Also,the interface of the file I have saved with the avatar and skeleton have a really different interface,how do I keep the file,and change the interface to default?

Thank you in advance.

[Chosen Few]

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LisaMarie McWinnie wrote:

You see how the skirt and top are moving with the arm?How can I fix it,and make a decent rigging?

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The areas that are misbehaving are doing so because they've got weight from the arm bones that they shouldn't have.  Most likely, the shoulder is affecting the rib area, and the shoulder and elbow are both affecting the wide hip area. 

This is a very common occurrence when you assign weights automatically, by proximity.  Since the shoulder joint is physically closer than the chest joint is to that side rib area, the shoulder is what was assigned the most influence over it.  You as a human artist of course know that the chest joint is what should have the most weight on that area, but the computer has no way of knowing that until you tell it. 

Ditto for that very wide hip area.  The elbow and shoulder joints are closest to it, so the automation had to assume that those are what should be pulling on it the most.  You, the human, know that the chest, and/or pelvis, and/or hips, are what should be controlling that area, but again, the computer can't know that until you tell it. 

In short, when you use a proximity bind, the only factor the computer can go by is proximity.  The good news is that the kinds of issues created by that are really easy to fix, assuming you know how t use your weight painting tools.  You simply need to weight the right areas to the right bones.  (More on this in a minute.)

As you may be starting to see by now, it's crucial to understand that any automated process you use for rigging is always going to be just a first step in what must always be a multi-step journey. The next step is to go in and clean up the inevitable mistakes that the automation will always have made.  It's totally normal, so don't think of it as a problem in any way.  It's just how the process works. 

This subject seems to be coming up a lot lately.  Below are some basic general instructions for the next steps you should take.  I've pasted these into several other threads on this topic, since I first wrote them a while back.  They apply equally to all programs, Blender included.

 

In most cases, you'll find that the weighting process works best when you start from the extremities, and work your way inward.  For example, start by painting a hand to be 100% weighted to the wrist joint.  You'll inevitably bleed a little onto the wrist skin area of the forearm. Just let that happen.  It's a good thing.  Now, paint over the whole forearm, additively, to weight it to the elbow joint.  You'll add elbow weight to the parts of the forearm that were already weighted to the wrist, and a little bit of that bleeding from the hand will remain.  That's exactly what you want.  If you did it right, you'll now have a perfectly functioning wrist.  If the wrist area distorts badly as the wrist bends, that's a sign that you haven't yet weighted the area strongly enough to the elbow, so just add a bit more paint.  (Those wide sleeve cuffs in your picture, by the way, should likely be weighted 100% to the elbows.)

Repeat the process, working up the chain, from wrist to elbow, from elbow to shoulder, from shoulder to spine, and you'll have a well rigged arm.  Do the same for a leg, starting at the toe, then working to the ankle, to the knee, to the hip, to the pelvis.  Finally, do the head, then the neck, then each spine joint, all the way to the pelvis.

You'll find that by working this way, from the outside in, you'll get good results, fairly quickly.   I do not recommend trying the opposite, working from the inside out, as you'll end up having to subtract weight instead of adding it, and then you lose a lot of control.  You can end up spending all day playing whack-a-mole with stray vertices that won't cooperate.  As soon as you squash one subtractively, another pops up to misbehave somewhere else.  By working from the outside in, entirely additively, you'll never encounter that kind of trouble.  A rig that might have taken you a whole day or more to do subtractively can be done additively in an hour or two, or in many cases, just a few minutes.

To put it in terms of hierarchy, it's always more effective add your way up from the bottom of the chain, than to try to subtract your way down from the top of the chain. 

 

If any of the above does not make sense to you yet, that's OK.  It's just a sign that you're at the beginning of the learning process.  It will make total sense, once you've gotten a little more experience. 

I'm afraid I won't be able to dive into specific how-to's for Blender, since I'm not an active Blender user (Maya is my weapon of choice).  There are, however, plenty of tutorials on the Web for weight painting in Blender, and there are lots of Blender users here on the forum, who can help you with the program specifics.  Again, the concepts described apply equally to all modeling/rigging programs.

 

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LisaMarie McWinnie wrote:

Also,the interface of the file I have saved with the avatar and skeleton have a really different interface,how do I keep the file,and change the interface to default?

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I do know enough about Blender to answer this one.  There are several options, but the easiest one is this.  When you click File -> Open, notice there's a checkbox in the dialog for "Load UI".  Simply uncheck that, and you'll retain your current UI settings, rather than override them with the ones used by the person who made file.

[LisaMarie McWinnie]

First of all,thank you for the interface help,it was so simple,and now my interface is normal!

I will have to check some tutorials on Weight paint,I don't know how to use it.I just recently switched from 2.49(the one I learned blender with) to 2.6,and I am slowly getting used to,and in fact,rather use the newer version.

 

[Chosen Few]

I thought you'd be pleased with the interface tip.  Isn't it cool when something so simple makes what had felt like a huge problem just go away?

As for the weight painting, yes, you'll absolutely need to study up on that.  As I recently said in another thread on the subject, expecting to be able to rig successfully without becoming an accomplished weight painter is like expecting to be able to cook without first knowing how to boil water, or expecting to be able to read and write without first learning the alphabet.  Yes, it's that basic, and that crucial.  There's absolutely no way around it (nor should there be).

Again, the good news is there's nothing difficult about it.  Despite the fact that just about everybody tends to be intimidated by it at first, you'll find it's really one of the easiest things you'll learn to do in the 3D modeling world.  As long as your model is well topologized for animation, it almost paints itself.

[LisaMarie McWinnie]

I managed to weight paint it,and I am happy with the results,specially for my first time.The right sleeve was a bit tricky,and don't look as good as the left one though.

I think something is wrong,in the uploading panel,it looks like this:

[Chosen Few]

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LisaMarie McWinnie wrote:

I managed to weight paint it,and I am happy with the results,specially for my first time.

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Good.  I told you it wouldn't be very hard  Glad you agree.

 

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LisaMarie McWinnie wrote:

The right sleeve was a bit tricky,and don't look as good as the left one though.

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If the model is symmetrical, you can mirror the weights from one side to the other.  I don't know the exact command for this in Blender, but I know it does have the capability.

 

 

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LisaMarie McWinnie wrote:

I think something is wrong,in the uploading panel,it looks like this:

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What does it look like with the Skin Weights checkbox checked?

 

 

[LisaMarie McWinnie]

With the Skin Weight checked:

Also,I can't see the cursor,with the X,Y,Z.

[Gaia Clary]

That looks pretty much like you did not use the Second Life export preset...:

 

• open the exporter:  File -> export -> Collada (Default) (.DAE)
• in the export window look at the left tool bar (and there locate the "Export COLLADA" panel)
• There you find the "Operator Presets" selector.
• Open the selector and choose "Second Life rigged"

Now all export settings are preset such that you can safely export your rigged mesh for Second Life.

Note that just enabling the option "Export for Second Life" might look like it does the job already but you will fall into other traps then. So its best to just use the preset

 

[LisaMarie McWinnie]

Thank you both!

Gaia,I selected the options you said,I actually not even saw them on the first time,thank you

But now,this is how it looks on uploading window:

I can't select Skin weights nor joints,is that right? And again,when I click on a vertices,I see it highlighted,but there is no cursor,I have to move it with hotkeys,how do I fix it?

 

[twisteddolly]

there are a few things you want to do to export a object 

make sure the object is highlighted then go into Export Colada 

in th side panal under Export data options click 

• Selection only
• Include Armatures

then under Armature options click

• Export for secondlife

 

when you upload you will have the option to click the skin weight options ((do not click the joints))

 

I hope this is helpful to you good luck :catwink:

 

NOTE: there is a Export for Secondlife script you need for Blender 2.6 

 

Collada Wiki

[LisaMarie McWinnie]

I selected the Second life option,and followed your steps,but in the upload window I can't select Skin weights,only Edges and Textures.