Autoweight - Automatic skinning tool for 3ds Max

Autoweight is now available for 3DS Max 2015.

How to turn off the display regions in old version? I have a problem when I use the bones pro.. Autoweight create this regions and then I can not see the range falloff. Atoweight creates its regions! Problem with visualze in BP.

Hei Dividus,

this seems like two questions. By "old version" you mean all versions prior to version 1 I guess. You can turn off the region-mode there by right clicking on your object (Object properties) and turn off vertex-display mode.

Concerning BP it might be possible that Autoweight only works with BP after you've selected a "Root-Object" (Select Hierarchy) since the BP bones may not be treated like normal Max-bones. So my question is: Does AW find the BP bones automatically or does it not. Since that might be a first hint that this could be the problem.

Best regards

kogen

Yes you are right, I never explain that anywhere... but I guess there is just a little hint in the docu.
The trick is to paint the regions first, collapse the modifier, select all points and click on "set regions". I released a tutorial just five minutes ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiWFKACPkZY&feature=player_embedded

Best regards

Mirko

Thank you, it was really helpful

I just cant figure out how to use Vertex painting with Autoweight. I mean, I paint the vertices, then the skin modifier it generates ignores all the painting done. Could you help me? Thanks in advance.

Hi,

just wanted to inform you, that Autoweight is now working again with Max 2009.

Best regards

Mirko

what are the differences between lite and full version? and lite and 0.61? I use 0.61 and it works great for me, i just dont want to loose features. Thanks kogen!

Hei Kimba,

well the differences between 1.0 and 0.061 are obvious. I've redesigned the UI, made the workflow more prone to errors, implemented a "real" working Vertex-Paint-to-Regions feature, rewrote the AWB importer / exporter, redesigned the "transition problematic", included new view modes (the old ones were quite wonky to handle in the previous versions) and besides other fixes and improvement the biggest improvement is: Speed.
That's where I come to the differences between lite and "normal". Speed is only gained when using external methods, when you use the lite version it's pure MaxScript, when using full it's C# + Maxscript. According to this most of the automatic functions only work with C# (normal Autoweight), in the Lite version you can still define regions and bones manually and let the stuff been calculated.
It's up to you to decide, which version you want to use. :)

Best regards

Mirko

Released a new video for all who are having trouble with the installer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=OUFI8xgEB5g

Hi,

just wanted to inform you, that version 1.0 is available.
You can get it from my homepage.

Thanks for stopping by.

-kogen

EDIT: Never mind. Figured it out.

I've install Autoweight 0.061 exe file in my win8 and choose path Program Files/Autodesk/3dsMax2013 then open my 3ds max but “Kogen’s Tools” is not appearing in the category, I tried also in Program Files (x86) but still no appearance has occured, my other friends also install it but with the same concern that kogens tools not appearing in Customize user interface, I really needed this tool so please help me. Thank you.

Install it in some folder and then copy all the stuff to the corresponding folders in your 3ds max root directory

How to fix this error?
Please refer to the image link
http://i.imgur.com/5ZBv7fe.png

Script brings up the panel with all button graphics etc (after copying as per earlier posts), however, all buttons are greyed out and do nothing, no matter what is selected or not. Tried on a simple Editable Mesh (as per video) tried with selecting nothing, everything in both Element and Poly, and selecting one face in Poly. Nothing but greyed out buttons.

Ideas?

Cheers,

Electronik Eel

Great script and very nice job

The script needs to be organized a little bit according to workflow
and may be a selection list where I can select a bunch of bones which are not hiearchial

ok, so i have 3ds max design and copying the icons to:
C:\Users\XXXX\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsMaxDesign\2013 - 64bit\ENU\usericons

and the macro to:
C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max Design 2013\MacroScripts

just in case there are others, a step i didn't see until i read the .pdf ...

"After the installation, run Max, go to “Customize” -> “Customize user interface”, browse the category for “Kogen’s Tools” under “Action” select “Autoweight” and drag it into one side of the Quad-menu for example."

great script, for starting the skinning procedure, but after i have finished skinning i can't seem to restore my materials.. and it's not just on the view port, it does not render either

anyway i had to save the skinning and load it to another mesh with materials on

Hey wshalaby,

your materials aren't lost. The vertex-color-mode ist still switched on.
You can always switch it off by right clicking on the object -> object properties and uncheck "Vertex channel display".

-k.

Thanks for this tool, is very useful.
BTW, you have nice discussion about this tool on CGTalk forum.
Who is interested can have a look here:
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=98&t=813877&page=1&pp=15

great script, for starting the skinning procedure, but after i have finished skinning i can't seem to restore my materials.. and it's not just on the view port, it does not render either

anyway i had to save the skinning and load it to another mesh with materials on

tried to make in 2011 and 2013 3ds max.Writes There are regions that contain no bones, operation canceled! Though bones are chosen. I apologize for English with the dictionary)

Hi Autoweight users and those who maybe wanna become some,

please except my appology that I've had little time during the last months. Nevertheless, I've recognized that user critism raised. The problem with extending a tool is, that errors and bugs extend as well.

In this version I've finally made it to rewrite some crucial parts and kick out a couple of concepts which produced undesirable results.
To be more precise I rewrote the algorithm for finding regions by bones automatically and would like to know if you find the new one useful.
Since the mirroring function was kind of corrupted there was a bit of tweaking as well but I think it should become fast in the future.

I guess there are still some exceptions that need to be caught but testing a script alone is always harder because at a point you get blind to errors. So tell me: What is your current experience with version 0.058?

Cheers ko'gen

Hey Kogen,

I am having an issue with the current version of autoweight. There seems to be an issue with the AWSet.png. The error reads, Runtime error: cannot load bitmap images AWset.png. How can I fix this? I have never had a problem with your script, well until I upgraded to 2013...

Hei Eak,

er, I'm not sure. But there might be a problem with copying the images to the correct folder. I have not tested it yet with Max 2013 so I cannot give you any hints but you might take a look into the folder structure (I guess I've listed the path in the PDF) and make sure that the images are at their correct places.

Gotta test that within the next few weeks maybe it's a general problem.

-k.

Stumbled accross this one too. For 2013 the working script is placed under the appdata folder. But to get it working you have to place the icons underneath this folder:
C:\Users\XXXX\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsMax\2013 - 64bit\ENU\usericons

Where XXXX represents your useraccount in windows.

Hope this is helpfull.

Yes. I just copied icons from:
C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2013\ui\Icons
and pasted to:
C:\Users\XXXX\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsMax\2013 - 64bit\ENU\usericons.

Thanx WarLoc3D

From Warlock3D
Stumbled accross this one
Stumbled accross this one too. For 2013 the working script is placed under the appdata folder. But to get it working you have to place the icons underneath this folder:
C:\Users\XXXX\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsMax\2013 - 64bit\ENU\usericons

Where XXXX represents your useraccount in windows.

Hope this is helpfull.

I have 3DSMax 2013 and I installed the program into my program files folder. After trying to install autoweight in my Max Folder and starting up max to find it not there I saw the installer put the autoweight macroscript in the wrong folder. I copied the autoweight macroscript into Autodesk/3dsmax/macroscripts folder I managed to see the autoweight tool in program. However it still doesnt work because the autoweight images are still not in the right place. I tried to put the images in the folders mentioned above but it is still not working. 3ds says the images are still not found. Any ideas? I would love to be able to use this tool.

Thank you for sharing this very useful script.
Is there a way to configure the transition so that works both ways? Currently the transition parameter seems to describe the way a bone's influence transitions to child bones, but not also to parent bones.

Thanks for the script. Is there any way to get the region selection back when I re-launch AutoWeight? Maybe a reverse of the setting the ploy vert colors?

Thnx

Of course there is such a way, if you select all polygons of the character (STRG + A (Polygonmode)) and hit "Set Regions" - Button, it re-calculates all regions according to the colors of the Faces. It is also explained int the PDF-File under point 8 "What the UI means..."

Hey, your idea is ten times better than Autodesk. I am so shocked skinning can be so easy!

I just played it for two hours after watching all your videos. Eventually I still had to switch to Bones Pro because of some bugs in your script.

For some reason,
1, it doesn't allow me to assign a region to some certain bones. In my case, the waist was assigned to the wrong spine. I chose the region, and clicked on PICK. It doesn't allow me to click on the right spine.

2, For CAT bones, there are always couple of extra bones, it can be ribcage, or some spine. Then your script doesn't allow to continue calculating skin.

3, Here is the real bug. I finally made all the regions on the whole character, and clicked "calculate all regions", then, some of my regions are messed up. I had to go back and correct couple of regions for many times, it still acted strange.

Really hope you can achieve more! Good job and keep going! Thank you!

It didn't work the way u said for me

what i did

1. Rename the mzp-file to "temp.zip"
2. Extract all data from the new ZIP File.
3.Drag AutoweightInstaller to Max

and it worked

Very fast and simple tool, a much better than default skin weights. Thank you.
How about weight's paint in difficult places by brush? In future version
It's possible?

Hei sbk,

thanks. When you say "Weight-Painting" do you mean something like "region-painting"? Basically it is possible. Currently I'm thinking about how such a feature can be implemented and how it could speed up and improve the workflow.

-k.

Yep, Usually I'm skining model approximately ~ 40k triangles and smoothing weights in skin mod. realy horrible and buggy.

I was told about a crazy bug concerning non existing edges in an editable poly o_O.
Another bug occured when you had more regions than bones (forgot to put the code in an if-clause.)

I fixed both issues and if you had problems with one of them, feel free to donwload the latest version 0.056.

@ rattle-snake: You're welcome, I appreciate your feedback.

A new version is ready to be downloaded.

I've also kept the old version just in case someone liked it better.

-k.

Thx a lot Kogen !
That's really great (mirror mode héhé).
Really nice Job, you rock :D

Very nice Script Kogen, i loved it.
Although its not working for me anymore, i formatted my system 2 days ago, i am using 3ds Max 2010 32-bit on win7.
it used to work before the format but now the drag n drop doesnt work, it just doesnt show any messages or anything in customize window. i opened the script via open script but its all jibberish n not readable. i dont know what is wrong? same thing is happening on my friends PC. please help or try n make a different installer. Thanks again. reply soon.

Hmmm I'm starting to hate this error. The problem about it is, that I can't fix it because on every PC I've tested it, it worked without any problems.

You might try this to install it manually which is a bit more fiddling:

1. Rename the mzp-file to "temp.zip"
2. Extract all data from the new ZIP File.
3. Copy the "Autoweight"-Folder into your max Scripts-Folder.
e.g.: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max Design 2011\Scripts
4. Copy the icons in the "Icons"-Folder (not the folder, just the icons!) to the Max-UI\Icons-Folder.
e.g.: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max Design 2011\ui\Icons
5. Restart Max
6. Go to "Costumize" -> "Costumize User Interface": "Category" -> "Kogen's Tools"
7. Drag "Autoweight" into a "Quad menu"

From what I know this works if you followed these steps.

Thanks. :)

The next version will become a bit more comfortable. It will feature an automatic "Region-Selection" according to your bones and as Mr. rattlesnake mentioned a "mirror and unify regions" tool. I'll release it as soon as I have written the final PDF and found most of the errors :)

Very very good news Mirko !
Seems like you write faster than your shadow ;)
Autodesk should hire you ^^

autodesk should hire alot of guys around here...

încredible, just saw it today and immediately felt in love with it. I always hated the time comsuming job of skinning... Its much more comfortable now.

Thank you.

Hi again kogen !

As I was very impressed with your Script, I made a little tutorial on it with my alien. : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66kIAi54j9w

I hope you will enjoy ! If you would like to change something or delete the video, just ask me !

Seb

Oh no, can you please delete it... :D

Just kidding. It's really, really cool. The alien is cool and I really like what you did.
It also showed some flaws I have to get rid of in the next version. :)

Thank you very much.

Thx for your comment !
But you seems to be as cool as the Alien ;D

But for the next version, you have no choice !
We waaaant a symmetrical mod haha =p
Can't wait for it :)

Just like to know: Is anyone having trouble with the installer? Does it install correctly via dragging the MZP into the viewport?

hello, thanks for the script ! very nice UI too !
MAXdesign 2012 x64 us / french win 7
.mzp don't run fine. I think that just icons are copied.
I install it manually.
question : what is the "transition" unit ?

Ahhhhhhh... I see...
Thanks for your feedback.

Well, the "transition" describes how big the edge distance is when two regions meet. The higher you set the "transition" value the greater is the edge distance measured from the border where the two regions meet.
In Autoweight 0.030 the transition value also defines the falloff (this will be changed in version 0.040). So if you have a transition value of 1 the skin weight value is always 0.5 (if two regions meet). If you'd change that value to 3 the skin weights become 0.5 for the border points, 0.25 for the neighboring border points and 0.125 for the next neighboring points. The transition value goes up to 99.

I've changed it (still the same version), just download, install and try it again if you're experiencing problems with CAT.

:) Don't beat the scripter. Since a standard biped and bones do have Nubs I recognized that I've used the same line for CAT-bones which do not.
So actually the problem with the overlapping CAT-bones still exists, but the auto-find function should find the bones more precise taking care of bones without children only when you use CAT. That was the reason why end-bones like digits haven't been found in the right place.

Dude ! How did you fix it so quickly ???

For my part it works like a charm right now ! (only a little pb with the head)

Since I have discovered CAT, I'm in love with it ^^. I think It's quicker and more stable than Biped or standart bones.

So really well done Kogen/Mirko !

Hahaaaa... I'm glad it worked. :)

It was just a false assumption from my side, since I had an idea where to look for it I could fix it during my breakfast ^^

Breakfast is always a good Idea =)

I'm happy to hear that it sould be implemented in future releases ;)

I've tried to skin one of my new alien with your plugin. I use CAT system for bones.
Unfortunately, the "auto-find bones" is a disaster.
For instance the pelvis = a finger; a part of a leg = a foot...

And the problem is that if I reassign manually the correct bone, then it comes to the wrong place into the list...

Yup I know, that's why I added something about that into the PDF.
CAT is difficult to handle the auto-find tends to find the wrong bones because of the overlapping extra bones like the chest etc.
However, assigning the bones with the auto-find and then correcting them manually is possible. If you need to change the hierachy use the "up" and "down" arrows to move the regions in the listbox (see PDF). Sorry for the distracting CAT-feature... I really need a better idea for auto-finding CAT-bones.

No problem Kogen !
I know How difficult it is to melt different systems together ;)
Your approach of the skin is Unique, I'm sure you will blow our mind again in some months.

I will try to correct my bones manually. But I have almost 70 bones :D ouch !

hi Kogen
Oh, I understand.
Thanks for your attention.

I tested your amazing plugin in 3ds max 2012 64 bits, and it seems to work great !

In my opinion it would be perfect if we could "paint" the polygons in symmetry rather than selecting them one by one with the mouse...

But still, I think it's the first awesome plugin for skinning in 3ds max !
Autodesk is really a shame for that !

Greetings from France !

Thank you very much.

In fact having a symmetry function implemented is one of my ideas for future releases. Nevertheless, I guess it will take a while. Painting polygons is a cool idea, at first I thought you spoke of "paint-selection" but having kind of a color system and just painting them sounds awesome.

Hi notapix,

thanks for your comment the problem with Max 2008 is, that you'd miss the feature of displaying your regions which is crucial in my oppinion. Since the "getFaceColor" function has been implemented in Max 2010 displaying the face color in Max 2008 is impossible using this command.

hello
I appreciate your script Autoweight0.03.
Please, you can make a change so that also work in 3ds max 2008?

Hello everybody
I've followed the alien tutorial made by seb, but after I made the symmetry of the half, attached the two halves and welded the middle, autoweight only works on one half of the character: "get region from selected polys only works on one half and one the other half it doesn't select the region it just deselect everything.
And worse, when I calculate autoweight script only calculate on this only half. It seems that it's the first half created that's taken in account, and that the "Attached and merged" one is ignored.
Even if I manually redefine separate regions for the pair parts of the second half (Arms, hands, legs, etc)in order to have the script recognize them for calculation, it only calculates one half.
It makes the script unusable