Paint Skin Weights Tool
 
 
 

The Paint Skin Weights Tool is one of the Artisan-based tools in Maya. With the Paint Skin Weights Tool, you can paint weight intensity values on the current smooth skin. See the following topics for more information on working with the Paint Skin Weights Tool:

See also How Artisan brush tools work.

Note

Unlike other Artisan-based tools, reflection is disabled for the Paint Skin Weights Tool. Skin > Edit Smooth Skin > Mirror Skin Weights can be used as an alternative method of reflecting skin weights.

To open the Paint Skin Weights Tool settings, select Skin > Edit Smooth Skin > Paint Skin Weights Tool > .

Tool Settings

Lets you specify the settings for the Paint Skin Weights Tool in the Tool Settings editor. Both the Influence and Paint Weights sections are unique to the Paint Skin Weights Tool.

For descriptions of all other attributes in other sections, see Artisan Tool Settings in the Artisan guide. The main brush settings are common to all Artisan-based tools.

Tools

Click the icons to use the following tools.

Copy weights

Click to copy the weight value of a selected vertex. See Copy smooth skin weights.

Paste weights

Click to paste a copied vertex weight value to other selected vertices.

Tip

You can also use the following hotkeys to copy and paste weights from vertex to vertex:

  • (Windows) + +c and + + v
  • (Mac OS X) + + c and + + v

Weight hammer

Click to fix selected vertices that have weights causing undesirable deformation on the mesh. Maya assigns the selected vertices with the same weight values as their neighboring vertices, resulting in smoother deformation. See Fix smooth weights.

Move weights

Click to move the weight values of selected vertices from their current influence(s) to selected influence(s). See also Move weights to other influences.

When you click the Move weights button (or select Skin > Edit Smooth Skin > Move Weights To Influences), the weight values of the selected vertices are removed from their current ‘source’ influences and re-assigned to the selected ‘target’ influence(s).

If you have more than one new influence selected, the moved weights are distributed based on the influence's existing weights. If the selected influences all have a weight of 0, the moved weights are distributed evenly. If the selected influences have existing weight values, the moved weights are distributed proportionally.

Show Influences

Click to select all influences that affect the selected vertices. This can help you troubleshoot areas of the mesh where you find unexpected deformations.

Normalize Weights mode
Select from the following options:

Off

Select to turn off smooth skin weight normalization.

Warning

Be aware that this option lets you create weights of greater than one or less than one, which can allow vertices to move too much or too little as you exercise the character.

Interactive

Select this mode if you want the weight value you enter to be used exactly. When you use this mode, Maya adds or removes weights from other influences in order to make the total weights on all influences add up to 1.0.

For example, if you change a weight from 1.0 to 0.5, Maya distributes the remaining 0.5 amongst neighboring influences. This mode replicates the normalization process in previous versions of Maya.

Post

This is the default. When Post mode is active, Maya defers normalization calculations until you deform the mesh. This lets you continue painting weights or adjusting interactive bind manipulators without having the normalization process change your previous skin weighting work.

Selecting this mode lets you paint or change weights without affecting the weights for other influences, and still have the skin normalization occur when you deform the mesh.

Note

Weight values do not always add up to 1 when you use Post normalization mode, but the mesh still deforms with normalized weight values.

If you use interactive skin binding, this mode is automatically selected for you. (See Interactive bind for smooth skinning.) As a result, for interactive binding, weights are not normalized until you deform the mesh.

For more information on skin weight normalization, see Smooth skin weight normalization and Set normalization mode and normalize weights.

Weight Type

Select from the following types of weight to paint.

Skin Weights

Select this option to paint basic skin weights for the selected influences. This is the default.

DQ Blend Weights

Select this option to paint weights values to control the blend between classic linear and dual quaternion skinning on a per-vertex basis. See Smooth skinning methods and Blend smooth skinning methods.

Influence section

You can find the following attributes in the Influence section.

Sort

These options let you set how joints are displayed in the Influences list. Select from the following options:

Alphabetically

Sorts the joint names alphabetically.

By Hierarchy

Sorts the joint names by hierarchy (parent-child) and displays them as branches that you can expand and collapse. The top of the list shows the root joint of the hierarchy.

This option is useful if you are painting a single a region of the skin—the joints you need to select from the list while painting are typically next to one another.

Flat

Sorts the joint names by hierarchy, but displays them in a flat list. Parent influences still display above child influences in the list, but you cannot expand and collapse the influences.

Size controls

Use these buttons to expand and shrink the Influences list as you work with the Paint Skin Weights Tool.

Reset to Default

Resets the Influences list to the default size.

Expand Influence List

Click to expand the Influences list and display more rows.

-click the button to open the Row Increments Options window and set how many more rows to display with each click.

Shrink Influence List

Click to shrink the Influences list and display fewer rows.

-click the button to open the Row Increments Options window and set how many fewer rows to display with each click.

Influences list

This area displays a list of all influences bound to the selected mesh. For example, all joints that influence skin weights for a selected character mesh.

Each influence displays with a color button that lets you adjust the influence color.

Tip

Use the sizing controls above the Influences list to expand the panel and view more influences.

Filter

Enter text to filter the influences that display in the list. This can make it easier to locate and select influences you want to work with, especially if you have a complex rig. For example, enter r_* to list only those influences that have the prefix r_.

Pin icon

Pins the influence list to display only the selected influences.

Influence color buttons

Opens the Influence color window, which lets you assign a new color to the selected influence.

Lock icons

A lock icon displays next to each influence name if the influence is held from receiving weights as you paint. If the influence is not held and can receive weights, no icon displays. (You can hold and unhold weights using the buttons below the Influences list.)

Hold and Un-hold buttons

Click to hold and un-hold the weight of selected influences. When an influence is held, a lock icon displays next to its name in the Influences list, and it is not affected as you paint weights for other influences. These buttons replace the Toggle Hold Weights On Selected button in previous versions of Maya.

Invert Selection

Click to quickly reverse which influences are selected in the list. This option is useful in conjunction with the Influences list hold and un-hold buttons.

For example, select only those influences you want to work with, then click Invert Selection to change your selection to all other influences in the list. You can then click to hold all other influences.

Reveal Selected

Click to automatically scroll the Influence list to display the selected influence. This can be helpful when working with a complex character that has many influences.

Mode

Lets you toggle between paint modes.

Tip

Use the hotkeys + < and + > to quickly toggle between these modes.

Select from the following options:

Paint

When on, you set weights by painting values on vertices.

Select

When on, you switch from painting skin weights to selecting skin points and influences. This mode is important for several skin weighting tasks, such as Fix smooth weights and Move weights to other influences. Select mode also provides the ability to select multiple vertices, then view and modify their weight in the Value field.

Paint Select

When on, you can paint-select vertices. Three additional options let you set whether you add or remove vertices from your selection as you paint:

Add

When on, painting adds vertices to your selection.

Remove

When on, painting removes vertices from your selection.

Toggle

When on, painting toggles the selection of vertices. As you paint, selected vertices are removed from your selection, and deselected vertices are added.

Select Geometry

Click to quickly select the entire mesh.

Depending on your workflow, this button can save time as you go back and forth painting weights on the mesh (in Paint mode) and completing other operations like fixing weights on selected vertices (using Select or Paint Select mode and the Weight hammer).

Paint Operation

Select one of the following options.

Replace

The brush stroke replaces the skin weight with the weight set for the brush.

Add

The brush stroke increases the influence of nearby joints.

Scale

The brush stroke decreases the influence of far away joints.

Smooth

The brush stroke smooths out the influences of the joints.

Value

Sets the weight value the brush stroke applies.

Gradient settings

You can find the following settings under the Gradient heading.

Use Color Ramp

When on, weight values are represented in color on the mesh. This can make it easier to see small values when painting, and to determine whether a joint is influencing vertices where it should not.

When Use color ramp is on, you can use the Weight Color ramp and Selected Color options to customize the color ramp. You can also select one of the Color Preset options.

Weight Color

When Use Color Ramp is on, this area lets you edit the color ramp. Click the swatches on either side of the ramp to set colors to represent values of 0 and 1, or select part of the ramp and click the Selected Color swatch to re-set that color.

Selected Color

Click to open the Color Chooser window and set a new color for a selected part of the color ramp. Only available when Use color ramp is on.

Color presets

Select from three pre-defined color ramp options.