Can Blender transfer weight maps from one model to another?

Hi
If I paint weights on a realtime model, is there a way of transferring that weight mapped data to a high-res model. In Maya (if my memory serves me) I think the feature was called transfer weight maps.
The two models that I’d like to transfer weights between are from the same base model with the only difference being vertex translations on the higher res subdivided model. They both have non-overlapping UV’s that are identical (except of course for the subdivisions of the higher res model) if that makes a difference?

seriously, does nobody know?

Not that I am aware of. I can see the usefulness of such a feature, but no, blender can’t do that. Auto weighting is quick and can provide decent results provided the mesh doesn’t overlap other parts of the mesh. Personally, I never use the auto weighting as I think it’s easier to just manually weight the mesh rather than touching up auto weights.

Randy

Thanks for the reply Randy :slight_smile:
That’s quite surprising that Blender does not have a similar feature. I really don’t like comparing application features but just in case anybody is interested this feature would work in Maya by creating a greyscale texture map for each bone based on it’s weighting, probably using the objects UV’s, so for example how much is each vertex effected by the current bone. These values would then be represented by white to black on a texture map meaning fully effected to not effected at all. From there it would be easy to transfer weights from a low poly model to a high poly model with the same skeleton and UV layout, geometry subdivisions would not make a difference in this case.

I just learned about a tool … I know nothing about it, but want to test it out
Read the first paragraph here:
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Ref/Release_Notes/2.65/More_Features

I’ve tried using this new feature in 2.65, but I must be doing it wrong. Here is what I’m doing:

  1. Line up the two meshes as best I can (in this case, two humanoid figures).
  2. Select the “source” mesh, select the vertex group to transfer, then select the “destination” mesh.
  3. I didn’t see a button, so I just spacebar-searched for “Transfer Weights” and ran that.
  4. A new vertex group appears in the destination mesh with the same name as the source mesh. Cool so far.
  5. Repeat steps 2-3 for another vertex group. !! A new group appears, but the previous one I created now has no vertexes/weights. !!

What am I doing wrong? Locking the groups on the destination mesh has no affect. I tried using the lichtwerk script, but it doesn’t appear to work in 2.65 (the button appears, but it’s not active).

Mathias — I know about your tool from the other thread, but I haven’t been able to try it out yet. Sorry.

I think I’ve figured out the Transfer Weights tool:

  1. In Object Mode, Select the source, then the destination objects, then switch to Weight Paint mode.
  2. There is a button in the left panel, push it, then adjust the settings. I used “All”, “Nearest Vertex”, “All”.
  3. It will transfer all the vertex names to the destination mesh, but not necessarily the weights or the vertex selections
  4. In Object Mode, with the two meshes still selected, SpaceBar search for “Transfer Weights” and select it.
    All the weight maps and vertex groups are there. Works very well, but some adjustments will have to be made for certain areas of a figure, like the fingers, eyes, tongue, etc, unless the two meshes are very close in shape.

Mathias – I’ll try and use your tool next and let you know if I can get it to work.

Yeah, I found that I have to apply it twice to get it to work… not sure why.

I haven’t tried it on a character.

I need to experiment with this tool a bit… but if it works anywhere’s near as well as the GATOR tool from Softimage, you will not be able to convince me that it is anything but pure magic.

I successfully transferred weight maps from a character to it’s clothing – just deleted the unused/empty groups.