Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
FIGURE 14.47
Kila, fully weighted
Painting Grae's Weights
You should now have a good grasp of what to look for when adjusting the weighting on
your characters, so I will leave the Grae model more or less up to you. If you are working
withtheblend-shapesversionofGrae,youwillfirstneedtoprepareandbindthegeometry
tothebaseskeleton.StartwithGrae_FaceBind_BS.mb,bindthebodymeshtotheskeleton
and the face to just the head joint, and save the file as Grae_Bound_BS.mb.
Before you begin to work on Grae's weights, you need to alter the designation of which
jointsactuallyaffectthemesh.Inanearlierchapter,weaddedfourextrajointstothewings
so we could control Grae's fingers, enabling us to open and close them. We don't need
these joints bound to the mesh, however.
Specifically, these are the wing finger “base” joints. They all lie on top of one another at
present, and the Wing_Wrist joint is there, too. Deciding which joint to weight to could be
a nightmare, so to make things easier we will remove the influence of the four main finger
joints. The fingers will still work as they should because the middle joints will control the
wing's main movement.
Load the file Grae_FaceRig_Jnt.mb.
1.
To remove a joint's influence, first select the mesh and then the joint.
2.
Next go to Skin > Edit Smooth Skin > Remove Influence.
Follow these steps for all of the following joints: L_Wing_Finger01_Base,
L_Wing_Finger02_Base, L_Wing_Finger03_Base, L_Wing_Finger04_Base and
R_Wing_Finger01_Base, R_Wing_Finger02_Base, R_Wing_Finger03_Base, and
R_Wing_Finger04_Base.
The weights these joints had will be distributed to the surrounding joints.
After removing the influences, go ahead and work on Grae's weights. Here are a few tips
to help you out:
Start by fully weighting each wing to the wing's root joints. This will simplify the
task of working on the body.
When you work on the wings, fully weight the vertices to the joints they are
closest to. Then make sure the vertices that lie in between are half weighted to the
joints on either side.
When working on the main body, make sure you pose the area you are working on,
verifying that the weights look as good as possible at each extreme.
