Home› Technical Talk

LOD's and Skinning

wagner.sz
wagner.sz
polycounter lvl 9
Offline / Send Message
wagner.sz polycounter lvl 9
Hi, I have doubts. I'm modeling a body, and some LODs for it.
I have to make the skin of each of them manually?
Maybe Save/Load skin, or SkinWrap can works, but i would like to know the better/correct/functional workflow for this.
I'm using 3dsmax.

Thanks
· Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Replies

  • Noors
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    Noors greentooth
    Use skinwrap and convert to skin, imo the fastest and cleanest way to do it. You can still edit points manually afterward.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • Mark Dygert
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    Mark Dygert mod
    Save/load won't work. Every vert is assigned a number and the bones weights are assigned to those numbers. When you change the number of verts, it reorders and renumbers so that the incoming weights will be all crazy. Vert one was in the face, it's now in the foot...

    Like Noors said, use skinwrap. It helps to tweak the skinwrap settings while looking at the model animating. That's just to make sure it's deforming as closely as possible before converting it to skin.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • wagner.sz
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    wagner.sz polycounter lvl 9
    Noors wrote: »
    Use skinwrap and convert to skin, imo the fastest and cleanest way to do it. You can still edit points manually afterward.


    Thanks Noors, I imagined it could be so.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • wagner.sz
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    wagner.sz polycounter lvl 9
    Mark Dygert wrote: »
    Save/load won't work. Every vert is assigned a number and the bones weights are assigned to those numbers. When you change the number of verts, it reorders and renumbers so that the incoming weights will be all crazy. Vert one was in the face, it's now in the foot...

    Like Noors said, use skinwrap. It helps to tweak the skinwrap settings while looking at the model animating. That's just to make sure it's deforming as closely as possible before converting it to skin.

    Thanks Mark.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • wagner.sz
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    wagner.sz polycounter lvl 9
    Another question is:

    In the image below, its showed the highest sudivision level(LOD0 probrably),so, if I want make more lod, I need to mantain some fixed vertices for reuse in different lods, and to work with a single rig, right or not?




    8757813028_30c297a190_b.jpg
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • Noors
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    Noors greentooth
    Well i assume for that kind of model, lod's are made by removing edge loops. This doesn't affect skin weight on other points so it will still work. Try to keep the force lines, but lods are meant to be seen from a certain distance anyway. Also I'm pretty sure they don't keep such a complex rig for lods too (tho as hero character, i assume you're never very far from her)
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • wagner.sz
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    wagner.sz polycounter lvl 9
    Noors wrote: »
    Well i assume for that kind of model, lod's are made by removing edge loops. This doesn't affect skin weight on other points so it will still work. Try to keep the force lines, but lods are meant to be seen from a certain distance anyway. Also I'm pretty sure they don't keep such a complex rig for lods too (tho as hero character, i assume you're never very far from her)

    I undertood.
    The ideal is to model thinking in LODS the lowest resolution and then go refining.

    Thank again
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • Ruz
    Options
    Online / Send Message
    Ruz polycount lvl 666
    load envelopes will work if you uncheck 'load weight by vertex', but as has been mentioned,skinwrap is probably the best way to go

    I used to sometmes get away with modelling the lod in an edit poly beneath the skin modifier,which works fine but can go weird sometimes
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • Neox
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    Neox godlike master sticky
    What about skinning first? unless you do very harsh mesh operations you can throw out loops without skinning issues. worked great for our 2 last productions where we had to do lods. finally everyone seems to be using simplygon these days ^^
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • trebor777
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    trebor777 polycounter lvl 10
    Except that Simplygon license is just crazy overpriced. So no everyone isn't using it >_< (Rant from someone who wish he could use it)
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • wagner.sz
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    wagner.sz polycounter lvl 9
    Neox wrote: »
    What about skinning first? unless you do very harsh mesh operations you can throw out loops without skinning issues. worked great for our 2 last productions where we had to do lods. finally everyone seems to be using simplygon these days ^^

    I didnt know the Simplygon, looks good!
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • wagner.sz
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    wagner.sz polycounter lvl 9
    Ruz wrote: »
    load envelopes will work if you uncheck 'load weight by vertex', but as has been mentioned,skinwrap is probably the best way to go

    I used to sometmes get away with modelling the lod in an edit poly beneath the skin modifier,which works fine but can go weird sometimes


    Normally I dont use envelopes, only vertex, so load envelopes dont will work. :(
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • acitone
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    acitone
    Is "LOD" in the wiki? I have much to learn.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • wagner.sz
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    wagner.sz polycounter lvl 9
    acitone wrote: »
    Is "LOD" in the wiki? I have much to learn.
    Yes, Level of Detail
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • Neox
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    Neox godlike master sticky
    trebor777 wrote: »
    Except that Simplygon license is just crazy overpriced. So no everyone isn't using it >_< (Rant from someone who wish he could use it)

    you work at ubisoft? they should have it - of course this is an on production level price, not a private at home or freelancing tool.
    To productions it's pretty simple math. How much will it cost to create LODs for all assets, how long will it take and will my artists stay sane doing those?
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • JohnnyRaptor
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    JohnnyRaptor polycounter lvl 15
    You would usually lod the skeleton and the bone influence as well,

    so LOD0 might have full face and finger joints and 4+ influences,
    while your lowest LOD might only have up to the head joint, no roll joints etc and only the wrist joint with the hand posed in the mesh and only 1-2 bone influences.
    wagner.sz wrote: »
    Another question is:

    In the image below, its showed the highest sudivision level(LOD0 probrably),so, if I want make more lod, I need to mantain some fixed vertices for reuse in different lods, and to work with a single rig, right or not?




    8757813028_30c297a190_b.jpg
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • oglu
    Options
    Offline / Send Message
    oglu polycount lvl 666
    maybe from interest... but the tech behind is simplygon...
    https://beta.autodesk.com/callout/?callid=ADD47B1B7D1147D187155C99F2B00185

    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEaLH-vbl6A&quot;]Autodesk Labs: Project Khan Getting Started - YouTube[/ame]
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Sign In or Register to comment.