Quick Explanation of the CD Bind Skin command

[Cactus Dan]

Howdy,

I thought I'd post a quick explanation of how to use the Joint Influence options for adjusting the auto weight calculation.

The default setting when the CD Bind Skin dialog opens is actually a "Rigid Bind" skinning. This means that each point on the mesh is bound to only one Joint at 100% weight. Notice how the weights cut off sharply between the joints with these settings:
No. Joints = 1
Falloff Rate = 0



If you increase the "No. Joints" parameter to a number above one, you get a "Smooth Bind" skinning, which means that the weights are blended between the joints to get smoother bends at the pivot points. Notice how the weights have been blended with the following settings.
No. Joints = 3
Falloff Rate = 0



If you also increase the "Falloff Rate" parameter, then you'll notice the weight blending between the joints becomes much tighter.
No. Joints = 3
Falloff Rate = 4.5



You can try different settings to see which one works best for your particular character mesh. Then as always with auto skinning, the weights will have to be adjusted to fine tune them in strategic areas.


Adios,
Cactus Dan

[crackle]

thanks for the explanation, very helpful at this particular time.

[robotbob]

thanks dan

one question i have is can you blur the weights at a later date ? ( or selectivly blur a few weights at a later date ? ) i know you can use tag manager for this ( found on the goodies CD , and you woud have to convert to CB for this )

pedro

[Cactus Dan]

Howdy,

The Paint Weight tool has a Soft Edges option that helps for blurring, but as of yet there is no blur option.

Adios,
Cactus Dan

[robotbob]

well, tag manager works great, written by klaus who wrote all the bonderland stuff - so i guess ts a function already covered.

[fredmartin]

Thanks Dan !

Autoweight is a great tool, very helpfull !
I was boring with the very long line of restriction tags in Cinema4D.

There's two things I don't understand :

how does work the mirror weight ? ( I always have an error message )

When you add a new joint on a weighted mesh,
what is the processus for refreshing the autoweight without loosing adjustments ?


Thanks for your great plug, Dan, it's a pleasure to use !
( And sorry for my "kitchen english" )

[Cactus Dan]

Howdy,

The Mirror Skin Weight is a bit unforgiving at the moment. The mesh has to have its axis centered exactly. Even when using a Symmetry object there may be some stray points or something, so I've found that if you use the Optimize tool before you skin the mesh, it sometimes gets rid of that error.

When adding joints to the Skin, you have to manually weight the new joints. I may look into adding an auto weight calculation to the Add Joint command, and see if I can update that.

Adios,
Cactus Dan

[fredmartin]

Thank you Dan for this real time support !

[Cactus Dan]

Howdy,

You're welcome.

Adios,
Cactus Dan

[Nemo]

Howdy Dan,

my character is skinned and poses the way I want, but if I move something (an arm), it wont return to a "Bind pose" prior to unbinding and if you "unbind" at this point , the mesh returns to the bind pose but the skeleton does not.

Would this have something to do with the CD Bind Pose tag?

In 10.1 there is an option to "group" objects in a non-destructive way (everything keeps it's original material for instance). Would this be an object skinable with one tag?