Skinning Fundamentals (1/2) 2017
Maya: Skinning/Deformation
Object deformation in Maya is based on virtual skinning rules, unlike reality which obeys more intuative physical laws. This page clarifies how skinning’s different in Maya compared to the rules of the real world.
You’ll learn the basic tools and how vertices loose volumes and why, twists and how some of the tools won’t work intuitively. Then you’ll get into weight painting. The class continues on the next page where we’ll look at the tools in more depth.
Despite efforts from the software manufacturers that appear to make skinning look as easy as one click setups, skinning still requires a solid understanding of basics to achieve desirable results.
The following classes are a must for any student wishing to have their characters deform well in Maya.
Running Time: 42 mins
Software: Maya 2017
2016 Related Page
Instructor: Andrew Silke
1. Basic Skin Weighting Settings (8:11 mins)
1.2 – Add Joints (2:18 mins)
1.3 – Remove Joints (50 sec)
1.4 – Max Influences (2:24 mins)
2. Moving Joints After Skinning (4:09 mins)
2.2 – Move Joints (Manual) (1:08 mins)
2.3 – Move Joints (Maya Tool) (1:40 mins)
3. Important: How Skin Weights Are Assigned (7:05 mins)
3.2 – Component Editor (3:29 mins)
3.3 – Skin Wrangler (1:39 mins)
4. Weighted Skinning As A Linear Direction (5:41 mins)
4.2 – Rotation Increments (2:44 mins)
4.3 – Twist Increments (41 sec)
5. Twist Issues And Solutions (4:35 mins)
5.2 – Twist Solutions (2:27 mins)
6. 100% Skinning Workflow (5:43 mins)
6.2 – Weighting 100% (37 sec)
6.3 – Smoothing Scripts (1:28 mins)
6.4 – 100% Workflow (1:53 mins)
7. Painting Skin Weights (7:07 mins)
7.2 – Paint Weights: Add (1:52 mins)
7.3 – Paint Weights: Replace (1:03 mins)
7.4 – Why Removing Is Bad (1:42 mins)
7.5 – Paint Weights Scale (1:10 mins)
7 Comments
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Hello, the link of the braverabbit’s Skin Cluster Weight Tool in the video 6.3 is missing.
Hi Ho Cheng Ting, yes braverabbit updated that tool and has changed the name.
I’ll update that now, the new link is
http://www.braverabbit.com/brsmoothweights/
The installer is slightly different too, so the icons may not work. I might look into this shortly and create an installation video and update the shelf too.
Thanks for letting me know.
Hi) Is this script( Skin Wrangler) works with maya 2022?
Hi Svetlana, skin wrangler has not been updated to python 3. We are thinking about creating our own tool, or upgrading Skin Wrangler ourselves, or modifying the Russet Potato Editor (below) lets see.
In the meantime I recommend the Russet Potato Weights Editor, this is a great tool, but its a little more overwhelming than Skin Wrangler, you can see how you go with it. I will be doing skin training soon with Hive so keep an eye out, we may have a python 3 version of Skin Wrangler working shortly.
https://github.com/theRussetPotato/weights_editor
hi)Andrew, where can I found information how to download “weight editor”. I have download zip file from github. But I have no ideas how to correctly install it. When i buy scripts its much easier to download:) Sorry for silly question but I didnt find any instractions on github.
Hi Svetlana, I don’t have install details for the Potato Weights Editor, but we did upgrade Skin Wrangler for 2019+. You can grab it here and it comes with detailed install instructions in the zip.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zy1byjklae66rgd/skinWrangler_2019-2023.zip?dl=1
Hi, I downloaded Skin Wrangler for 2019+ but this message (ModuleNotFoundError: file line 1: No module named ‘skinWrangler’) occurred even though I put ‘skinWrangler’ folder in scripts folder (username/Documents/Maya/projects/default/scripts/skinWrangler -> this directory). Can you suggest the way how I can install this?