Normal Weight Maps; Bad Deformation

[jumbo]

I am a newbie to character animation but not to 3D. Currently I am working on a project for a client that requires character animation.

I have been following through the book "LightWave 3D [8] Character Animation" by Timothy Albee and it worked well for me, up until today.

When creating the weight maps everything went well until I started working on the arms. I put weight on both bones for one arm, but when I looked back at the scene in Layout, the arm was really messed up as you can see from the attachment.

When I turn "Weight Map Only" on, the mesh moves even further left. If I keep playing with the settings in the bone properties, it keep deforming in the strangest ways.

If I turn on "Limited Range" the deformations stop, but the arm won't move at all; at least it's not moving the wrong way.

Can anyone help me?

[Surrealist.]

What I would do is, well it looks like you are jumping ahead. If you follow the book step by step it will work. If you are not jumping ahead then go back and make sure you followed all of the steps exactly. I've done it a couple of times. There are many things that have to all work together. I would also the first time just use the ThinGuy model and just follow along. Yes you won't be rigging your charater but in the long run you'll be better off removing any extranious factors. Once you learn it cold, then rig your characer. I have the book and believe me I understand it is a bit complex but in the end it all works if you follow along exactly.

[jumbo]

The deadline is approaching very quickly for this project. I have some questions that have come to mind in the process of trying to figure out the problem.

1. In Timothy Albee's book on page 125, (6.6), where it starts to talk about the IK Booster, he said that, "You could leave right at that point and have a perfectly, wonderfully functional rigging." I figured that with time being of the essence, I could stop right there, only problem was, the mesh didn't move with the skeleton at all. How can you stop at this point and have perfectly, wonderful, and most importantly, functional, rigging?

2. I figured out that the mesh didn't move because of the blank weight maps assigned to each bone. I followed the part in the book where he makes the weight maps for the legs--presto, perfectly working legs. I moved on to one of the arms, made some weight maps--and get this, without ever even moving anything. Why is that?

Thank you for your help.

[Surrealist.]

The deadline is approaching very quickly for this project. I have some questions that have come to mind in the process of trying to figure out the problem.

1. In Timothy Albee's book on page 125, (6.6), where it starts to talk about the IK Booster, he said that, "You could leave right at that point and have a perfectly, wonderfully functional rigging." I figured that with time being of the essence, I could stop right there, only problem was, the mesh didn't move with the skeleton at all. How can you stop at this point and have perfectly, wonderful, and most importantly, functional, rigging?

2. I figured out that the mesh didn't move because of the blank weight maps assigned to each bone. I followed the part in the book where he makes the weight maps for the legs--presto, perfectly working legs. I moved on to one of the arms, made some weight maps--and get this, without ever even moving anything. Why is that?

Thank you for your help.

At this point 125 he is only talking about the rig from the IK/FK point of view. That's as far as you've gotten at page 125 chapter 6. He's not talking about wieght maps. Chapeter 7. If the leg worked after the steps in ch 7 good. Move on. You now have to finish the weight maps for the entire model. including the shoulder blade etc. These all affect the bone deformation. Then continie with chapter 7 and check for stray points, streighten the feet. If you followed the steps setting up the rig exactly it will work.

Once you have started with weight maps you have to finish. It will be faster than struggling the rig trying to figure it out.

If you are in need of help you can email me the rig and I'll be glad to help get it sorted out if you find yourself in a jam.

[jumbo]

Thank you for all your advise, Surrealist; it has helped a lot.

I worked on the weight maps and have completed everything but the maps for the fingers on the right hand.

At one point today, I changed the hierarchy around so that the arms have the Root bone as a parent instead of the one in the upper spine. That fixed the problem with the arms :), but the problem is now in the hands :(.

I tried what worked with the arms, but had no success. The big problem is with the LeftHand_Rot bone, which is making that mess you can see in the attachment. Should I try remaking its weight map?

The right hand is good and works well when moved, as shown in the attachment. (The fingers don't move because they have no weight assigned to them.)

Also, I took the ThinGuy model and told it to use the bones from my model and it shows the same distortions.

I have one other question. The weight values on each point should add up to no more or less than 100%, right? I looked at the ThinGuy model for reference and noticed some points have less and some have more.

One of these areas is at the base of the fingers. The ThinGuy has the weight for the Hand_Rot at 50%, but allows each adjacent finger the same weight, leaving the middle points with 150%. Could that be my problem?

FYI - I talked to the client today and the pressure for the deadline isn't as bad as I thought. :)

[Dodgy]

You don't have to have all point's influence adding too 100% but it's good practice. (you can turn on 'Normalise weights' in the bones panel to make LW figure this out on the fly)

Alternatively, open vertexpaint, and if you go to the weights tab, at the menu at the top is a normalise weights option which will go through your whole object and make all the weights equal 100%

[Surrealist.]

Alternatively, open vertexpaint, and if you go to the weights tab, at the menu at the top is a normalise weights option which will go through your whole object and make all the weights equal 100%

Dpdgy I don't know. With the same set up on my computer when I used Vertex paint it erased half of my maps! I tried this again and again and just by loading up the model into vertex paint it did it every time. Just FYI.

I tried what worked with the arms, but had no success. The big problem is with the LeftHand_Rot bone, which is making that mess you can see in the attachment. Should I try remaking its weight map?

I have one other question. The weight values on each point should add up to no more or less than 100%, right? I looked at the ThinGuy model for reference and noticed some points have less and some have more.



Yea I noticed that too. I went through the entire model. Ideally it is supposed to be 100% As to the Rot bone, I have no idea. I didn't do it in broken up steps like you are. I just finihsed all of the maps first. But if your rig is doing the same thing in the other model, I don't know.

I know I am repeating myself but go back and check the earlier steps. Also I would first just finish all of the maps then tweek. That way the rig is at least functioning. I think because you have been going back and forth on this there is greater chance of something being missed. I would go back methodically - even start over again with a new rig. You will do it faster and maybe find what you did wrong. Well you get my point. I never had any problems and I am just telling you how I did it, step by step from beginning to end without stopping between to test the rig. I wound up making a second rig because the first time though I didn't really understand what he was talking about on a couple of points and things weren't working exactly as they should. I got it right the second time.

[Dodgy]

Are your maps linked to your bones in the Skelegon editor? Do you have skelegons in your object?

[jumbo]

I was replying to your posts earlier today, when I decided to try something someone at another forum had suggested. It worked!

The solution was to re-record the rest positions for the bones after I changed the hierarchy. I had a stray point or two that needed weight maps adjusted and I think I had to play with some settings on a few bones, but it started worked wonderfully.

So I went, fixed, and finished everything.

Thank you for all of your help; I was about ready to give up Thursday with those crazy deformations. Now all I have to do is animate him.

Dodgy – I did use skelegons and each had its own weight map.

:thumbsup:

[Surrealist.]

Awesome! Nice work! :thumbsup: