Bow rigging - problem

LeeMeredith

Hello, I'm trying to rig a simple bow string using Mark Dygerts method of 2 weighted bones.

I had to turn off normalize because it was 100% weighted (red) all in the center of the bow, I then weighted in vertices in twos going 1.0 0.9 etc




But my result was this :>




I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, this is my first time using bones and the skin modifier.

I have a decent amount of height segments on the bow and when looking closer you can see some aren't affected when pulled.

Thanks for any help.

Eric Chadwick

What does your modifier stack look like? You should usually have only an Editable Poly modifier below Skin, and not in Sub-Object selection mode.

Also, did you Reset Xform (then Collapse) before adding the Skin?

LeeMeredith

Eric Chadwick wrote: »

What does your modifier stack look like? You should usually have only an Editable Poly modifier below Skin, and not in Sub-Object selection mode.

Also, did you Reset Xform (then Collapse) before adding the Skin?

Thanks for the reply, I have a skin and edit poly modifier in the order you specified. I didn't reset x-form, so I tried it just but I still get the same broken result.







I tried to use the weight tools blend button but it just turns the vertices full on red.

Eric Chadwick

Can you post the Max file itself? I can take a look. Which version of 3ds Max is this?

Eric Chadwick

Also, have you examined the Weight Table? It will show you the bone weights for each vertex.

LeeMeredith

Hey it's 2015 - https://www.dropbox.com/s/4w94yq9cawwtra5/bow02.max?dl=0 I just looked at the weight table, I'm not sure what I'm looking for in terms of problems, they all show the values I set.

Thanks

Eric Chadwick

OK, you have 4 bones here. You really only need two. So delete bones 4 and 6.

2nd, your string mesh has 32 segments. If you want to assign .1 difference to each segment (I haven't seen Mark's tutorial, just assuming here) then you'll need a 20-segment string instead... 10 up from the center and 10 down.

After deleting the old string and attaching a new one, in Skin turn on Normalize. Select all the verts in the Skin modifier and assign them 1.0 to Bone003 (the bow's bone).

Since your string is a 3-sided cylinder, the middle 3 verts will need to be weighted 1.0 to Bone005 (the string's bone). Then the next loop of verts up and down should be assgined .9 weight, etc.

Eric Chadwick

It also helps if you go to frame 100, and add a keyframe for the string's bone, where it is moved outwards, like a hand pulling the string. Then you can scrub the timeline while you weight the vertices, to see how they're reacting.

LeeMeredith

Hey, thanks a lot it worked perfectly. Thanks a lot for the help.