Bone Weighting

[Natterforme]

I have several problems with a custom armor I have made. First: the left gauntlet properly fits on the arm, both in the inventory screen and in the world space. The right arm is bone weighted exactly the same and does not line up either in the inventory space or the world space. The upper part of my armor(the sleeves) refuse to stick to the arms when they move so the armor resembles a T shape. The armor has a belt that is split into two parts(an upper and lower division). Both pieces were stuck on the ground and I was able to bring the upper half back to its correct placement by attaching it to the spine(the pelvis bone kept dropping it to the floor) but when I do the same for the lower half(and every combination I can think of) it continues to drag pavement. Finally I have a pair of boots that have a unique property. Whereas most boots take up the foot slot and make that part of the body disappear, my boot shows the feet like a sandal. The boot walks fine and is weighted correctly, but everytime I walk around the feet slip in and out of the boot mesh. I have tried clearing the bone weights of everything and starting from scratch but the problems still persist. Is there a guide that deals with quick and easy bone weighting? Im not using stock oblivion armor or mods that already have proper alignments and weights, Im making something completely new.

[Fumofumo]

Hmm. Sounds like you made a few missteps. I'll list out instructions that apply to Blender.

1. Select each object and delete all the vertex groups.

2. Import a body that is similar to the form of your equipment.

3. Delete the bones.

4. Select every object. Select the body last so it is highlighted.

5. Go to Object->Scripts->Bone Weight Copy and set it to Quality Level 3.

6. Grab a snack or a drink and wait until it finishes.

7. You probably won't have to go in and manually weight paint... Probably.

8. Select everything and import a fresh skeleton with Parent to Selected as the importing option.

9. Select only the Skeleton when you export and it will export out all the parented pieces.

Hopefully everything works out for you?

[Natterforme]

You weren't kidding when you said to find something to do while you wait XD. I havent finished it yet but I do have some questions in the meantime. In part 9, you say to only export the skeleton and the rest will take care of itself. Im not questioning to do that since I will follow the instructions, but I would like to know why and how that works. Also, I am working from the full armor set right now and I was wondering: If the whole thing weights correctly and exports to a nif file and shows up in the game, can I then import the nif file, cut up the armor into pieces(gauntlets, boots, etc.) and expect the individual pieces to be properly weighted and export to their own nifs? This has been very helpful and I thank you for your support, regardless of whether or not I can get the file to work on my end^^. Edited June 11, 2011 by Natterforme

[Fumofumo]

You weren't kidding when you said to find something to do while you wait XD. I havent finished it yet but I do have some questions in the meantime. In part 9, you say to only export the skeleton and the rest will take care of itself. Im not questioning to do that since I will follow the instructions, but I would like to know why and how that works. Also, I am working from the full armor set right now and I was wondering: If the whole thing weights correctly and exports to a nif file and shows up in the game, can I then import the nif file, cut up the armor into pieces(gauntlets, boots, etc.) and expect the individual pieces to be properly weighted and export to their own nifs? This has been very helpful and I thank you for your support, regardless of whether or not I can get the file to work on my end^^.

Well. The reason selecting only the skeleton and exporting works is because when you import the skeleton, you are parenting it to the other objects. Thus those objects are dependents of a sort. Before exporting, try moving the skeleton's position, you will see that it will move all the pieces accordingly. As to the other part of your question, yes. Simply remember that when after importing the .nif to be cut into pieces, delete the bones. It's always better to import a fresh skeleton.

[Natterforme]

After weighting the new armor to the body, can I delete the body? On my test gauntlets, they showed up fine in the game but there was some body overlapping because there was an extra body mesh. If this can be done, does that mean that the new armor will relatively fit any body mod? If I decide to use a khajit or an argonian, for example, would a human body show up? Oh and the test gauntlets are now properly weighted thanks a lot^^.

[Fumofumo]

You can delete the body you imported to do the Bone Weight Copy. Not entirely sure what you mean about the rest though. Care to clarify for me?

[Natterforme]

I just wanted to be sure that the body mesh that I used as a bone weighting base was not a required asset for the clothes to function. If it was then that would mean that I would have to use exactly the right body mesh for each set of clothing that I made. With this, I now know that I can delete the unneeded mesh which will cut down on file size and overlapping problems in game. This also means that clothing I made on an imperial body base will still fit right on an argonian or khajit body with only minor tweeking. As to the rest, I usually like to use Desuchans Khajit or persacom races and I didnt want a big vanilla race body overlapping that mod. Before, when I was testing this incorrectly, the body was required to be part of the clothing mesh in order for the hands, feet, and so on to appear in the game. This is what kept giving me headaches and is almost completely solved now. I will update as soon as I get the whole armor set in the game^^. Thanks for the help so far.