Skin Modifier

SyaPed

With Physique you can go down to the Edit Poly level and select which verts you want to work with and hide ones you don't want to touch. Is there a way to do this with the Skin modifier?

Eric Chadwick

Only via maxscript AFAIK. The SkinOrDie toolset has a hide function, and I found it does work. Even though it appears as though the vertices are still selectable, they aren't actually being affected while they're "hidden".

I haven't used it in a long time tho, not sure if it still works in latest Max.

Mark Dygert

Do you need to hide them because that's what you do with physique?
I do a lot of skinning and I've used physique and skin quite a bit and I can't say I've ever needed to hide verts while using skin.

Here's my typical workflow when using skin.
Apply skin modifer, add bones.
Adjust the envelopes to get the best deformation possible.
Using the paint weight tool (with blend turned off) I touch up the trouble areas.
- Ctrl + Shift + LMB drag controls brush size
- Alt + Shift + LMB drag controls strength
- Alt while painting reverses your strength
Then adjust any verts by hand using the weight tool.

For me its extremely fast and gives better results than weighting each vert by hand. If the model is layered like a character wearing armor or has gear or something then I break those pieces off the mesh and skin them separately so I can show/hide the different pieces.

The only thing I miss from physique is the deformable envelopes, everything after that skin as improved on in very significant ways. Sometimes I'll start off with physique just to get the deformable envelopes then convert it to skin using Monster's "skin 2 physique and back" script.
http://monsterblues.wordpress.com/2006/04/27/skin-2-physique-and-back/

r_fletch_r

if your working with absolute weighting then just stick and editable poly mod under the skin and move the offending geometry out of the way. Relaxing can be pretty handy here too. when your done delete the modifier.

before the new vert selection tools this was a really neat trick for weighting entire elements to a bones. great for wheels and such

SyaPed

Hmm, okay thanks guys! I just like using the selecting tools in edit poly to get the verts I want to mess with, but it looks like there's other ways about this, thanks!

yiannisk

you can hide the geometry element from the poly object itself !?!

i used to make sub-obj selections after i had reached rigging so that i could quickly hide unhide entire groups fast.

also on the skin modifier itself there is an option to display or not all vertices.
if you choose not to show then it will only show the affected ones only.

Mark Dygert

SyaPed wrote: »

Hmm, okay thanks guys! I just like using the selecting tools in edit poly to get the verts I want to mess with, but it looks like there's other ways about this, thanks!

Yea I hear ya I wish they had unified selection methods too... but you gotta work with what they give ya =/