Segmented character and mirroring skin wieghts

The V Man

Hey all. So I've got a character that I've modelled and segmented into multiple body parts. The issue that I'm running into is that I can't mirror from one body part to it's counterpart on the other side (so say right knee and left knee).

Does anyone know of a script or trick to accomplish this? I had hoped to be able to swing something with exporting the weights but Max is being 'all or nothing' about that, and the format it's exporting in isn't easily read.

I have a sneaking suspicion that I'll be doing it manually (augh) so anything would be helpful

Thanks!

swytch

If the parts needing to have mirrored weights can be attached to each other so that they share the same Skin Modifier, but are still separate elements, then you can use Mirror Mode (under the Mirror Parameters rollout) to do what you want. On unattached objects you can sort of do this by saving the envelopes (.env) from right object and loading to left object, but still need to do a little manual touch up to get the mirroring. Otherwise, I don't know of a complete way to do what you want.

Hope this helps,

monster

I'm assuming by segments you mean that you have several objects and you are unable to use the Skin mirror tool in the Mirror Parameters rollout...

1. Combine a copy of all your body parts into one object.
2. Skin the single object and mirror the weighting in the opposite side.
3. On each original part apply a Skin Wrap modifier, add the skinned model, and click Convert to Skin.

If this isn't what you meant, you need to be more specific with your problem.

Why can't you mirror? Did you find the mirror tool? Does it not work? Are you getting unexpected results? Are your segments separate objects? Screenshots would help also.

Psyk0

In older max version Bioskin 1.53 worked great (still worked on max 9 x64!)

But i've also done this "manually": first i skinned the mesh as a single piece, skin one side and mirror it, max should be able to do it without *much* problems.

Duplicate the mesh, select the area you want to be segmented, now hit invert selection and hit delete. You are now left with a segmented and presumably still weighted portion. Repeat process for each segment.

Or you could also detach everything and simply copy paste the whole skin modifier (make sure you copy it before segmenting!) on each body part afterwards.

Dunno if that made sense...

The V Man

Thanks for the info folks!

To clarify - this character was one model that I made and then separated into body parts (Torso, Head, Left Arm, Right Arm, etc) by detaching each part into it's own object (all in the same scene and lined up). I did this because when I get him in game, he needs to be able to have limbs removed by sharp things (also the reason why I can't attach any parts for mirroring).

For parts that can use and need symmetry (ie. Torso, trunk) mirroring is working great, it's just those pesky arms/legs/hands/etc.

Anyway - I'll give both the envelope and combine/copy/skin wrap solutions a try and report back on how it goes.

Thanks all!
-V

cw

If the verts or bone locations match across the symmetry plane, it should work.

If it is a problem with mirrorins weights on an instanced skin modifier between objects, it might be worth putting in a bug report to AD.

If the latter is the case, you could quite quickly make a pipeline tool which would generate all the mesh chunks from a single mesh. This means you can work on your model in the normal manner, then split it apart on export. That's the way I'd go at it anyway.

Good luck!

also, my usual caveat - send me the scene and I will take a look and maybe fix it.

Psyk0

The V Man wrote: »

I did this because when I get him in game, he needs to be able to have limbs removed by sharp things

Jedi Academy by any chance?...

swytch

Nice one, monster! Forgot about Skin Wrap and Convert to Skin (face palm). I tested it and I just had to adjust the Mirror Offset and Threshold settings a little and it works great. It should do what you need V Man.