You can swap an unbound piece of geometry with
your character’s bound geometry and transfer all your smooth skin
weights to it with the Substitute Geometry menu
item.
Substitute
Geometry (
Skin > Edit Smooth Skin > Substitute Geometry)
lets the various stakeholders in your production pipeline (such
as modelers, technical directors, and animators) work on the same
character at the same time without having to redo the character’s
skin weights multiple times.
NoteWhen the piece of
unbound geometry you want to swap is the duplicate of a skin (bound
geometry),
Substitute Geometry only produces
valid results if the skin’s skeleton was at its
bind pose when
duplicated. (See
Bind pose.)
If the unbound geometry
has been freeze transformed to a different scale and translation
than the bound geometry, complete the following steps to prepare
your geometry for substitution.
To prepare freeze transformed geometry
for substitution
- Select the skeleton, then select
Skin > Go To Bind Pose.
- Select the unbound geometry, and set
its Translate and Rotate
XYZ values to 0 0 0 and its Scale XYZ values
to 1 1 1.
The skin and unbound
geometry should now be roughly at the same position in XYZ space.
If they are not, move the unbound geometry so that it appears to
be on top of the skin in your scene view.
- Select the unbound geometry, then select
Modify > Freeze Transformations.
You can now move and
scale the unbound geometry, and the Substitute Geometry operation
will produce desirable results.
To switch your character’s bound geometry
with unbound geometry
- Select your character’s bound geometry
or skin.
- -click
the polygonal object that you want to swap with the selected skin.
Note
- When the piece of unbound geometry you
want to swap is the duplicate of a skin (bound geometry), then Substitute
Geometry only produces valid results if the skin’s skeleton
is at its bind pose when it is duplicated. (See
Bind pose.)
- The unbound and bound pieces of geometry
do not have to overlap during the Substitute Geometry operation,
but for the operation to produce desirable results, the unbound
and bound pieces of geometry need to have been created at the same
XYZ position and size.
- Select
Skin > Edit Smooth Skin > Substitute Geometry (or
select Skin > Edit Smooth Skin > Substitute
Geometry > if you
want to set the options first).
NoteTo cancel the
Substitute
Geometry operation, press the
key.
All actions taken thus
far are undone and your character is returned to its original state.
The selected piece of
unbound geometry moves and rotates to the position of your character’s
bound geometry.
A duplicate of the bound
geometry’s skeleton is created for the unbound piece of geometry
and the skin weights from the original piece of bound geometry are
transferred to the unbound geometry. Also, the new skin is given
the name of the old skin to maintain any of the old skin’s connections.
By default, the original
skin is deleted and the unbound piece of geometry becomes your character’s
new skin. If you turned on
Retain old geometry in
the Substitute Geometry Options,
the old piece of bound geometry is given the suffix 1.
Limitations to Substitute
Geometry
- Does not allow
you to swap pieces of bound geometry.
- Does not support modeling operations
after the skin in the bound geometry’s history. All modeling nodes
between the skin and the bound geometry’s shape node must be removed
before substituting geometry.
- Does not support subdivision surfaces.
- Does not work with surfaces that have
blend shapes.
- Vertices on the new skin that are some
distance from the original piece of bound geometry may not map well
and may require re-weighting. You can improve your weighting results
by using the Re-weighting Distance Tolerance option
in the Substitute Geometry Options.
(See
Substitute Geometry Options.)