Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
2.
The way Kila is placed in the virtual world means her arms span the X axis. There-
fore, you need to mirror the weights across the Y and Z axes, so set Mirror Across
to YZ.
3.
Her left side lies in the positive section of the axis, but her right side is in the neg-
ative. Because you are mirroring from the left, enable Direction Positive to Negat-
ive so that Maya knows which side to mirror from and to.
4.
Click on Apply, and the weighting information will be copied across.
Maya'sMirrorWeightstooldoesn'talwaysdoaperfectjob;theweightingtendstogetcon-
fused down the center of the model, and often weights are assigned incorrectly. You may
find,forexample,thattheverticesdownthecenterofherT-shirtmovewiththerightbreast
but not with the left. These kinds of problems will need fixing before you move on; make
sure that each side equally affects the vertices in between.
Other areas to check include the crotch, which needs to stay fixed to the Root joint. The
upper spine and even the base of her neck may need to be corrected, too.
Look also at areas such as her belt, which isn't symmetrical. This lies across an area that
dramatically deforms, so it will be impossible for the belt not to intersect with the mesh at
some point; just try for the best result you can get.
Tip
The best overall way to check your weighting is to put your character into
some extreme poses. These will reveal any faults in the way the weights
are distributed. You can then go in with a lower Opacity setting and tweak
the weighting values until they are correct.
With the main body-weighting mirrored we can now move on and work on her hair.
Hair Weights
Because the hair joints are not symmetrical, we can't rely on weighting the left side and
mirroring the weights across for the right.
