can't get automatic weights working so doing it manually...

Support Animation and Rigging
#1

So automatic weights don’t work, it complains about some bones not matching or something. Even when I got it working in an earlier version of my model, it did it all wrong, so I rather just do it manually.

I made vertex groups for each body part earlier, so I am trying to rely off that.
Problem is, when I try to sort of blend the movement, like by putting the weight at .1, and move a limb, it just moves it completely like if the weight was at 1.

Also is there a way to paint through vertices? Like, weight painting only does the verts you can see, can you do the verts behind it?

(Notice how the shirt is all pudged in even though the leg is only moved in a little bit, it should just be a very small movement)

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/46294175/klonoa/model/weightpaint2.png

see how it is all messed up?

here’s the zip of the model if you guys could take a look maybe?

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/46294175/klonoa/model/blenderartists/modelcombined.zip
or not zipped if you’d prefer, but it’s like 3x larger https://dl.dropbox.com/u/46294175/klonoa/model/blenderartists/modelcombined.blend

it’s not completely symmetrical, maybe that could be why automatic weights aren’t working.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/46294175/klonoa/model/blenderartists/2936.png
like I had to move a few verts earlier, but I don’t want to do automatic weights anyway, so it’s not a huge issue.

#2

The reason a .1 weight moves a bone completely is because there is no other bone attached to it to be a counter weight. When weight painting it doesn’t matter if something has a weight of 100 or a weight of .00001. If no other bone influences that vertex then it will be read as 100% weight. Best practice is to go through vertices and make each one add up to 1 with the contributions from each influencing bone. I’d highly recommend the Mammoth rigging series from cmiVFX as a jumping off point. Complex rigging is not for the faint of heart.

#3

So basically, get everything the way I want it with 1.0, then worry about blending?

#4

Yes, block out weights in all 1.0 per bone, then blend after that. I’d also avoid using the brush at all and do it via vertex groups in the N panel. It gives a lot more control.

#5

Interesting – can you explain how to do this? I’ve been weight painting a character for a week, and I’m all for an easier way.

#6

Nice! Thank you.