Mirroring problems with the Skin modifer in max

Neo_God

So I was rigging up a model with the skin modifier and when I went to mirror everything, I noticed that the hands were red (like the bones in the middle) rather than blue and green. So now if I mirror it, it assigns both hand's vertex weights to one hand. Anyway I can just make those bones green and blue again so I don't have to manually weight the vertices on the other hand.

Rick Stirling

Its red when it cant-mirror - try adjusting the threshold or the mirror plane.

If all that fails, I can send you a nasty mirror script tomrrow that will work.

Joao Sapiro

hey neo i also had the same features and since im lazy to dig it up i ended up by re weighting the other half...

rick : could you also send me that script if you dont mind ? thanks

Neo_God

Alright, That worked! Thanks Rick!

Rick Stirling

global BoneArray
global BoneNArray
global WeightArray
global PasteArray


-- Pass the vert id to extract all the weights to arrays
fn CopyWeight theVert =
(
-- Empty the arrays
BoneArray = #()
BoneNArray =#()
WeightArray = #()

theSkin = $.modifiers[#skin]
BNumber = skinOps.getVertexWeightCount theSkin theVert
BN = BNumber as string

for i = 1 to BNumber do
(
boneID = skinOps.getVertexWeightBoneId theSkin theVert i
boneName = skinOps.GetBoneName theSkin boneID 0
boneWeight = skinOps.getVertexWeight theSkin theVert i

append BoneArray boneID
append BoneNArray boneName
append WeightArray boneWeight
)
)




fn PasteWeight pVert =
(
disableSceneredraw()

theSkin = $.modifiers[#skin]

print "these are the stored arrays for copying"
print pastearray
print weightarray

skinOps.ReplaceVertexWeights theskin pVert pasteArray WeightArray


enableSceneredraw()
redrawViews()
)



fn find_mirror arrayIndex =
(
-- Build arrays of all the bones in the system
theSkin = $.modifiers[#skin]
totalbones = skinops.getnumberbones theSkin

totalBoneNArray =#()

for i = 1 to totalbones do
(
boneName = skinOps.GetBoneName theSkin i 0
append totalBoneNArray boneName
)



-- Now we know all the bones, lets parse of list of weighted bones


SB = BoneNArray[arrayIndex] as string
boneToFind=SB

-- Find bone names beginning with CHAR
if (substring SB 1 4 == "Char") then
(
BNprefix=substring SB 1 7 as string
BNsuffix= substring SB 8 255 as string

newPrefix=BNprefix
if BNprefix == "Char L " then newPrefix= "Char R "
if BNprefix == "Char R " then newPrefix= "Char L "

boneToFind = newPrefix + BNsuffix
)

if (substring SB 2 1 == " ") then
(
BNprefix=substring SB 1 2 as string
BNsuffix= substring SB 3 255 as string

newPrefix=BNprefix
if BNprefix == "L " then newPrefix= "R "
if BNprefix == "R " then newPrefix= "L "

boneToFind = newPrefix + BNsuffix
)


if (substring SB 1 1 == "l" or substring SB 1 1 == "r") then
(
BNprefix=substring SB 1 1 as string
BNsuffix= substring SB 2 255 as string

newPrefix=BNprefix
if BNprefix == "l" then newPrefix= "r"
if BNprefix == "r" then newPrefix= "l"

boneToFind = newPrefix + BNsuffix
)

-- ok, at this stage we have an arracy of bone names, and we know what name
-- we are looking for. so cycle the array and find the index!
theIndex = 0

-- Do we need to find a new bone?

if (boneToFind != SB) then
(
print bonearray
for i = 1 to totalbones do
(
thecheck= totalBoneNArray as string
if thecheck == bonetofind then theIndex = i
)

pasteArray[arrayIndex]=theIndex

)
)



rollout blank "Single Skin Copy and Paste"
(
label lbl1 "Select vert, press copy, then select vert and press paste." pos:[9,8] width:197 height:48
button ButtonC "Copy" pos:[18,40] width:75 height:24
button ButtonP "Paste" pos:[110,40] width:75 height:24


on ButtonP pressed do
(
theSkin = selection[1].modifiers[#Skin]
n = skinOps.getNumberVertices theSkin

selVert=0

for i = 1 to n do
(
if (skinops.isVertexSelected theSkin i == 1) then
(
selVert=i
)
)

-- Call the copy function
PasteWeight selVert
)




on ButtonC pressed do
(
-- Get vert id
theSkin = selection[1].modifiers[#Skin]
n = skinOps.getNumberVertices theSkin

selVert=0

for i = 1 to n do
(
if (skinops.isVertexSelected theSkin i == 1) then
(
selVert=i
)
)

-- Call the copy function
CopyWeight selVert

-- We now have 3 arrays - bone id, bone name, and bone weight.
-- some of the bones might need to be mirrored so for each bone, find the possible mirror
n = BoneArray.count
pastearray = bonearray

for i = 1 to n do
(
find_mirror i
)
)
)

-- Create floater
theNewFloater = newRolloutFloater "Rollout title" 220 100

-- Add the rollout section
addRollout blank theNewFloater

Rick Stirling

Run it
Select a vert
press copy
Select another vert
Press paste

It automatically mirrors weights