Beyond the lesson

In this lesson you learned how to:

• Bind a skeleton to a single surface.

  You can bind a skeleton to multiple surfaces or even to a selection of polygonal vertices or NURBS CVs or subdivision surfaces.

• Use the Paint Skin Weights Tool to prevent a region from collapsing upon deformation.

  To control skin weights with more precision than shown in the lesson, you can modify skin weights numerically with the Component Editor. If you smooth skin multiple surfaces which have been seamed together, there are many tool settings for the Paint Skin Weights Tool that make the task easier.

• Use an influence object to fix an elbow's deformation when moving.

  Another common use of an influence object is to simulate a muscle bulging during joint rotation. The technique requires use of Set Driven Key to link the bulging influence object’s scale values to the rotation of the appropriate joint.

Skin weights and influence objects cannot overcome all modeling problems. To fix some problems, you will need to detach the skin, alter the original model, then bind the model again.

Bind skinning is just one of the techniques for perfecting a character’s deformations during animation. You can use Maya’s other deformers alone or in addition to skinning to achieve the results you want.