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Maya offers many choices when it comes to how a character's geometry will be influenced by a skeleton. Smooth Bind allows for overlapping membership where any vertex can be influenced by the rotation of multiple joints - a conceptually naturalistic approach. Yet if the character's geometry is heavy, be it NURBS, Polygons or Sub-D, the weighting process can become cumbersome, and performance can suffer. In this video we look at an indirect skinning approach which works for any geometry type, where we add wrap deformers to our high-res geometry which then get Smooth Bound. The workflow of creating the wrap deformer geometry, assigning the wraps, placing joints and skinning are all thoroughly addressed.
Convert SubD to Poly
Convert NURBS to Poly
SmoothBind
Once geometry has been Smooth Bound to a skeleton, vertex weights must be edited to design the skin deformations. Maya's default weighting algorithms can give a good starting point, but the skin will be riddled with problems. Continuing from 'Skinning, 1', we look at the workflow for effectively editing weights using Artisan and the Component Editor. Every major region of the body is addressed including the hand, foot, knee, pelvis, shoulder, abdomen and chest. While weighting, we also discuss what results one can hope to achieve with the goal of anatomical accuracy in mind: weighting alone can only take you so far, but it is the crucial first step.
Paint Weights Tool
Export/Import Weights
Disable/Enable Normalization
For characters with dialogue or shots which require the expression of emotion, head and facial rigging is crucial. Again working with a Smooth Skin, we look at how the weights can be designed for the jaw, head and neck. Once weighting is complete, we then move on to eyeball deformations and the interior of the mouth. Techniques for rigging the teeth, gums, throat and tongue are demonstrated, with a tongue rig which allows for any possible range of tongue movement. We then look at how facial muscle control can be set-up using a Blendshape based technique which is quick and intuitive.
Blendshape
Smoothbind
Parenting
When anatomical accuracy is required, it is necessary to supplement joint weighting with auxiliary tools. Joint weights determine what percentage of a rotational arc a vertex receives as joints rotate. In reality, however, where anatomical deformation is driven by muscle, tendons, fat and bones, any region of flesh surrounding a joint will not move on pure arcs. When rotating your own elbow or knee to their extreme positions, for example, the flesh on the inside of the arc compresses, bulges and slides, while the flesh on the outside of the arc is pushed outward by the protrusion of bone and cartilage. In this video we look at how Smooth Skin Influence Objects can be utilized to achieve these types of natural deformations using an intuitive and quick workflow.
Create Poly Tool
Set Driven Key
This video was added to our catalog on November 04, 2005 in Digital Art - 3D::Texturing.
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Good video, but it turned out to be a little irrelevant for my personal needs. The video deals with using a low-poly mesh as a deformer for a high poly version so to improve performance I guess. I didn't really watch it because I didnt need it. But I think the technique he is using is a little dated though. However I give it a 5 stars because it was an excellent job teaching, a just question its usage for these days...
