| Rigging
in LightWave — Modeler Setup |
So, what are weightmaps?
Weightmaps are designed to allow us to attach
control values to vertices, and then tell LightWave
to use them to adjust, and change the way in which
the bones influence will be applied across them.
Consider them to be like 'alpha channels' for
bone influence on a 3D model.
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NOTE : Bones can share
weightmaps, and because bones work well without
them as they do with them, that means that we
can keep our weightmapping strategy very simple
and easy to manage as we'll see in the following
section. |
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Getting
Started
After laying out a basic skelegon structure for
my character in another layer, I brought the characters
body into the foreground and placed the skelegons
in the background for reference. I also changed
the perspective display to Weightshade mode. This
lets me see the weightmaps I create. |
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The
Head
I begin all my weightmapping from the extremities
— In this case, I started by selecting all
the head polygons (down to where the headbone
connected to the neck bone) and then created a
new weightmap for the vertices of these polygons
(remember that weightmaps are applied to vertices
and not polygons) called 'WM_Head'.
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NOTE : You may be wondering
why I used a 'WM_' in my map name... The reason
is that weightmaps can be used in many tools LightWave,
not just for bone influence. Often I will name
the weightmaps with various prefixes, depending
upon what I plan to use them for so that I can
quickly associate them when I see the name. i.e.
WM_ for general weightmaps, FX_ for weightmaps
that I will be using to control particles or softbodies,
TX_ for weightmaps that are to be used in texturing,
and so on. |
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Once the weightmap is created,
the weightshade view in the perspective viewport
shows the polygons as a bright red colour. If
all is fine, I then hide the head polygons by
clicking on View > View > Hide Selected
to just get them out of the way, and prevent any
accidental weightmaps being added to points where
they're not welcome. This also leaves the vertices
of the weightmap area easier to select should
I wish to perhaps tweak the borders between the
weightmap to another value for blending with new
weightmaps as I go.
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The
Arms
The arms I do next. To select the arms, I often
will just lasso or select the points on the hands,
then use the View > Selection > Expand
option until the polys reach the shoulder area
where I want the new weightmap to end (where the
shoulder bones connect). This method often gives
me a cleaner way to select just the necessary
polygons without fiddly lassoing and deselection
of parts of the arm geometry.
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Once I'm happy with the
selection, I create a new weightmap called 'WM_Arms'
(for both arms and the hands). Because each arm
is sufficient distance apart to not cross influence
each other, there's no need for each arm to have
a unique weightmap of its own.
I then hide the selected arm polygons as I did
with the head.
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