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Transfer_AW plugin basic operation


robcat2075

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Steffen Gross' Transfer_AW plugin can simplify weighting complex meshes. It's been around for a while but I don't think most people are aware of what it does.

 

Basic Workflow:

 

1)Make a fabulous model with all the splines you need. Group it and name it "hi-res"

2)In the same model window, make a simplified version of your mesh with just enough splines to hang on a rig. Group it and call it "lo-res"

3)body parts that you don't want to influence each other can be given names like hi-res_leftleg and hi-res_rightleg

4)Attach and weight the lo-res mesh to your rig's bones.

5)Transfer_AW will transfer the weights from "lo-res" to "hi-res" and figure out all the in between weights for the hi-res CPs.

6)Hide or delete your lo-res mesh

 

Video showing sample case: AWTransfer_basics_200.mov

 

Sample PRJ in video: WeightMoverTest03_for_demo.prj

 

Transfer_AW is included in v16. You can get the v15 version and read more about Transfer_AW's parameters on Steffen's site.

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Did Stefan write it or is it the old Anzovin code?

 

 

I'm pretty sure Steffen wrote it from scratch. The Anzovin weightmover was a standalone program and could only work on files before V13.

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Robcat,

 

Awesome tutorial man!!! Thank you for taking time to explain how it functions. That helps alot to see the process in action. I do have two quick questions about it if you have a few seconds:

 

1. If you are rigging an entire character and you have basic weighting for the whole body...Arms, Neck, back, pelvis, fingers, knees...hips... How do you approach envoking the plugin for just one area like the arm.....Would it effect/ try to reweight the entire body...or can you zoom in on certain bone chains, etc.

 

2. After the weight has been transfered.....how flexible is the aftermath in order to make it closer to what you want. Can you then add smartskin....and/ or weight the cps closer? In the example you did, the joint seems to shrink a bit, so I'm guessing it would take some additional tweeking even though its getting you a bunch closer automatically...Which is awesome.

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1. If you are rigging an entire character and you have basic weighting for the whole body...Arms, Neck, back, pelvis, fingers, knees...hips... How do you approach envoking the plugin for just one area like the arm.....Would it effect/ try to reweight the entire body...or can you zoom in on certain bone chains, etc.

 

There's a check box for "exclude hidden CPs" I haven't experimented much with yet. I also haven't tried the the part about having separate hi and lo groups for each part of the body.

 

 

2. After the weight has been transfered.....how flexible is the aftermath in order to make it closer to what you want. Can you then add smartskin....and/ or weight the cps closer?
In theory you can edit like any other mesh, but a hi-res mesh has a lot of Cps to mess with.

 

In the example you did, the joint seems to shrink a bit, so I'm guessing it would take some additional tweeking even though its getting you a bunch closer automatically...Which is awesome.

 

Much remains to be found out in this area.

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Here's an initial test of the idea with a mesh from the Open Source program Make Human:

 

AWTest.mov

 

 

Many things remain to be further investigated for improvement, but the concept is basically sound.

 

 

Comparison of the lo-res mesh I rigged with TSM2 and the hi-res mesh:

 

HiLo.JPG

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You can get the v15 version and read more about Transfer_AW's parameters on Steffen's site.

 

 

Looking at Stefans site explains the other checkbox in the dialogue. Apparently, Stefan offers 2 ways to generate the new weighting- 1 by a 'splinear' approach, and if you check the checkbox there is a 'hi-res' approach, where the new weights are generated by a proximity basis.

tempry.jpg

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Further thinking about this utility... it's quite possible that it could be used for an overall 'smoothout' of CPs on a fully rigged character. You would:

 

-select all the geometry on a finished fully weighted character and name the group 'lo-res'

-copy and paste it...re-naming the duplicated lo-res group 'hi-res'

-eliminate groups that absolutely need not be smoothed, like eyeballs

-run the utility to smooth-out the CPs in the hi-res group with experimentation

-delete the lo-res geometry

-Save-As model

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