skinCluster node

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A skinCluster node allows you to associate a percentage per joint/transform for each CV in the geometry. In Maya, this creates the effect known as smooth skinning.

The weights can be queried and edited using the skinPercent command, the skin weight painting tool, or the component editor.

Node name	Parents	Classification	MFn type	Compatible function sets
skinCluster	geometryFilter	deformer	kSkinClusterFilter	kBase kNamedObject kDependencyNode kGeometryFilt kSkinClusterFilter

Attributes (34)

baseDirty, basePoints, bindMethod, bindPose, bindPreMatrix, bindVolume, blendWeights, deformUserNormals, driverPoints, dropoff, dropoffRate, geomMatrix, heatmapFalloff, influenceColor, influenceColorB, influenceColorG, influenceColorR, lockWeights, maintainMaxInfluences, matrix, maxInfluences, normalizeWeights, nurbsSamples, paintArrDirty, paintTrans, paintWeights, skinningMethod, smoothness, useComponents, useComponentsMatrix, weightDistribution, weightList, weights, wtDrty

Long name (short name) Type Default Flags

skinningMethod (skm) enum 0

An Enum to set the algorithm method used. Classical is the linear vector blended skinning. Dual quaternion uses a joint space non-linear blend. Blended use a weight set to linear interpolate between them.

blendWeights (bw) double 0.0

The blend weights per vertex for blending between dual quaternion and classic skinning.

weightList (wl) compound n/a

Bundle of weights for each CV

weights (w) double 0.0

weights for each target

bindPreMatrix (pm) matrix identity

The inclusive matrix inverse of the driving transform at the time of bind

geomMatrix (gm) matrix identity

The inclusive matrix of the geometry path at the time of the bound

matrix (ma) matrix identity

Driving transforms array

dropoffRate (dr) double 4.0

Old dropoff rate, kept around temporarily for compatibility purposes

dropoff (dpf) double 4.0

Rate of weight value dropoff per influence object (1 for linear, 2 for quadratic, etc. )

smoothness (smt) double 0.0

Controls how smooth the deformation resulting from the a poly mesh influence object will be

lockWeights (lw) bool false

Indicates whether the weights of the corresponding influence are allowed to change

maintainMaxInfluences (mmi) bool false

When true, the skinCluster will not allow a vertex to be weighted to more then "maxInfluences" transforms, as defined by the maxInfluences attribute.

When this attribute is switched on, the skinCluster will not immediately reassign all of its skin weights. Instead, the skinCluster will begin enforcing the max influences as weights are edited. Alternatively, the attribute editor "Update Weights" button or the corresponding skinCluster command can be used to reassign all of the weights at once.

Note that locked influences take precedence over max influences. Therefore, if more the maximum number of influences are locked and weighted, the weights are over-constrained. In this case, the max influences cannot be maintained unless you remove some of the locks on the influences.

maxInfluences (mi) integer 2

When the related attribute 'obeyMaxInfluences' is true, this attribute specifies the maximum number of transforms that can influence a point. When the related attribute 'obeyMaxInfluences' is false, this attribute specifies the number of influences at the time the skin was bound.

bindMethod (bm) integer 1

Stores the method by which the skinCluster was bound where 1 = ClosestDistance, 2 = Closest Joint, 3 = Heat Map Diffusion

driverPoints (drp) geometry NULL

The world space coordinates of the driver influence geometry

basePoints (bsp) geometry NULL

The world space coordinates of the base influence geometry

baseDirty (bsd) Message n/a

Set to dirty when the world space coordinates of one of the base influence geometries change

paintWeights (ptw) doubleArray empty

Temporarily stores the weights for one of the influences

paintTrans (ptt) Message n/a

Identifies the influence whose weights are used in the paintWeights attribute

paintArrDirty (pad) Message n/a

Gets marked dirty when the values in paintWeights change

useComponents (uc) bool 0

If set to true then moving the components of the influence objects will affect the skin deformation

nurbsSamples (ns) integer 10

The number of samples to be taken on influence curves/surfaces

useComponentsMatrix (ucm) bool false

This attribute is obsolete and is unused in versions past Maya 8.0. This attribute is only used when the useComponents attribute is true. When this attribute is true, we use the new algorithm for component-type influence objects so that the matrix of the influence object is taken into account in addition to the tweaks on any influence components. This means that the joints and the influence object can be scaled as a group without modifying the deformation behavior. This attribute is false by default in order to not change any existing scenes.

normalizeWeights (nw) enum true

When this attribute is interactive, any time that the weight of a point is modified, all of the other weights on the point are changed such that the total of all the weights for the point sum to 1.0. When this attribute is none, the weights are not normalized, and will not sum to 1.0 unless the user specifically makes them sum to 1.0. Note: a "false" value for -nrm/-normalize flag on the skinPercent command overrides this attribute value. However, a "true" value for the -nrm/-normalize flag on the skinPercent command does not override this attribute value.

weightDistribution (wd) enum 0

When normalizeWeights is in effect, and a weight has been reduced or removed altogether, the sum is usually brought back up to 1.0 by increasing the contributions of the other non-zero weights. However, if there are no other non-zero weights, the algorithm has to create some weights from thin air and distribute the residual weight between them. This attribute controls how that is done. "Distance" - the algorithm calculates weights from the world-space distances from the component to the transforms. "Neighbors" - the algorithm calculates weights from the weights on the neighboring components. Note "Neighbors" only works for polygon meshes - other shapes always use "Distance".

deformUserNormals (dun) bool true

If set to true then the deformation will affect user normals

wtDrty (wtd) Message n/a

Gets marked dirty when the point weights need to be recomputed

bindPose (bp) Message n/a

The bind pose will be connected to this attribute to indicate that it is the bind pose for the skin.

bindVolume (bc) Message n/a

The bind volumes will be connected to this attribute to indicate that it is the initial binding volumes for the skin.

heatmapFalloff (hmf) double 0.0

This attribute is only relevant when skin was bound using the heatmap method. Stores the heatmap falloff value because weights can be updated through the AE.

influenceColor (ifcl) float3

the skin cluster to the inflence color

influenceColorR (ifcr) float 0.0

The red component of influence object color.

influenceColorG (ifcg) float 0.0

The green component of influence object color.

influenceColorB (ifcb) float 0.0

The blue component of influence object color.