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Weight Map Transfer
Posted: 06 July 2021 04:26 PM   [ Ignore ]  
Total Posts:  73
Joined  2018-08-27

One thing I have always struggled with in Cinema 4D is adding additional geometry, like cloths (I do not mean a Cinema 4D cloth object) to an already fully rigged, morphed and weighted character.

Most of these characters come from DAZ-3D and iClone which does a good job of transferring the character’s body weights over to the cloths.

I’ve tried using Cinema 4D VAMP tool and Weights Manager, but they don’t come close to matching the original cloths weights created by the other software.

Over the weekend, I figured a way to transfer the exact weights, though a one drawback. First what I did.

I opened the modified character with the extra added closed I exported as a FBX file.

Then I selected just the cloth item I want to add and click on the weight tag. (Image Step 1)

For each joint that is being used for weights, I right click the joint and select “To Vertex Map” (Image Step 2)

Then I copy the cloths object and paste it into my main character project. Doing this removes the joints from the cloths objects weight tag, but the created vertex map tag names have the joint name.

Then I click on the cloths object weight tag and add all the joints from my main character for each vertex map tag and select the vertex map option and select the vertex map tag with the appropriate joint name. (Image Step 3)

Now the cloths object has perfect weights and matches the main characters body weights.

The drawback of this process is the cloths weight tag is now only a pointer to a bunch of individual vertex maps which cannot be edited as a single weight map. (Image Step 4)

Is there a way to merger all these vertex maps together into the weight tag?

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Weight_Transfer_Steps.zip  (File Size: 140KB - Downloads: 108)
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Posted: 06 July 2021 05:09 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 1 ]  
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Hi brucek5,

The Weight Tags that can be produced respond to the body points that the Weight Tag has stored. But, unfortunately, they have zero ideas about the Cloth points. For example, amount, position, etc.)
To harvest the values and then try to merge those (*no native way to do so, BTW) will recreate what you had to begin within the original Weight Map.

Weight and Vertex Map only store point-related information. These points don’t match different geometries.
Vamp would work best if those points matched. But, since they don’t, you started to try to find a way.

If Vamp isn’t working for you, use the Bind-Option with the same settings for the Body. That is typically a better start. But cloth with folds might not work with the same settings well enough. So manual work might be the only answer.

If possible, uses an alpha material for the Body where the cloth will show eventual overlapping problems.

All the best

P.S.: I have put an * in the text. You can save and load Weight values via file. A Vertex map can be stored or loaded into an Asci file. So, externally there is a way to harvest and combine, but again: it is not a texture, it is based on points, and those have a position. So, no use.

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Dr. Sassi V. Sassmannshausen Ph.D.
Cinema 4D Mentor since 2004
Maxon Master Trainer, VES, DCS

Photography For C4D Artists: 200 Free Tutorials.
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Posted: 06 July 2021 07:13 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 2 ]  
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P.S.:

Here is a little example of the Vamp, for everyone reading along.
Clip 60 sec.
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/YZD92KfOPcE5iTFchqoO25mXkeheX9NuUozVJBeYDR4

 Signature 

Dr. Sassi V. Sassmannshausen Ph.D.
Cinema 4D Mentor since 2004
Maxon Master Trainer, VES, DCS

Photography For C4D Artists: 200 Free Tutorials.
https://www.youtube.com/user/DrSassiLA/playlists

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NEW: Cineversity [CV4]

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