I have currently built a rig which works kind of nice, could use some finessing. However i only painted one side of the model so far. I would like to mirror the weights to the other side, is this possible in BLender? Than if I update weights afterwards on one side, will it interactively update the other side?
Select the model, go to edit mode, then to Mesh-Scripts, and there is a script called mirror vertex locations and weights. If the model is symmetric that should do it.
For the next time you try weight painting, activate the x-mirror option in the weight painting dialog, and that should let you paint just one half of the model while blender simultaneously mirrors the weights.
I have the same problem and the xmirror thing doesnt do what i need it to. It does paint the other side but only for the bone that is selected, ie the left bone will control both the left and right mesh which is bad. I have read that you can name all the bones you want mirrored to start with an “r” on the right side and an “l” on the left side and then select an option before painting and it will apply the correct weights to the adjescent vertex group, but i haven’t been able to successfully do this. I haven’t heard of this post mirroring script though, sounds promissing.
you need to name the groups .L or .R at the <b>end</b> of the name, not the start
you don’t even need to create both named groups - if you create an vertex group called “arm.L” and the start to paint with the x-axis mirror selected it will automatically create “arm.R”
it is also a lot easier to paint with x mirror enabled when you start weight painting - rather than mirroring the weights afterwards
I find it useful to put the characters limbs in different poses when I weight paint - that way when I paint one side I can see the effect of the the deformations in multiple poses at the same time
Just a new feature update here … In addition to the X axis mirror weight painting option, the Mirror modifier now has a new “Mirror Vgroups” option (Vgroups for Vertex Groups), which when turned on mirrors the vertex groups automatically … so in cases like womball’s you can just delete the half that doesn’t have the weight painting, add the mirror modifier and just turn on the “Mirror Vgroups” option and then apply the mirror modifier and the weights will be mirrored automatically …
Also if you are like me and often tweaking the geometry while posing the mesh with an armature and don’t feel like applying the mirror modifier yet, this new feature lets you pose a working mesh in any pose without the mesh “splitting” along the mirrored axis . All you have to do is to turn on the “Mirror Vgroups” option and move the the mirror modifier above the armature modifier in the modifier stack … You can now happily go on and modify your mesh as much as you want without deleting one half every time you make changes and be able to see the result immediately .
… now if the particle hair and UV mapping also worked this way … you’d never have to apply the mirror modifier ever again …
Oh:o thank you… yep i got it now, i don’t know how i misread that tut, I must be dyslexic and have ADD.
I have nearly the same problem like Womball had, so I just jump into conversation here.
I already modeled an character, made UV Coordinates and a texture. I assigned weights to vertex groups but not all are mirrored. Problem here is that I didnt use the weight paint mode ( I have more control with the manual setting in the vertex group panel). But now I cant mirror the assigned values of the vertex groups from one side to another.
The Mesh-Script causes strange results. I can`t use the mirror-modifier option because this would destroy my UV-Coordinates. Does someone have some more solutions for this?