The Torso -- Still More Weight Maps

The mirrored polygons of this torso share the same surface properties as their counterparts on the original left side of the body. Interestingly enough, the mirrored points also share the same weight values as their counterparts on the original left side of the body. While this is good for central weight maps (such as "Hips," "Torso," "Waist," and "Neck"), it also means the weight maps intended for the left side of the body unintentionally cover the right side of the body as well.

You need to divide those symmetrical weight maps prefixed with the word "Left" into true Left and Right weight maps, using Map > General > Copy Map, Volume Selection Mode, and Map > General > Clear Map.

STEP 1: Load torso09.lwo into Modeler (if you did not follow the previous tutorial sections and just want to practice Weight Map editing, you may load torso09.lwo off the CD-ROM). Go to the layer that contains the left half of the torso.

STEP 2: Set the Perspective View display type to Weight Shade.

STEP 3: From the Modeler drop-down list, select Windows > Vertex Maps Open/Close.

STEP 4: You should see a small white triangle pointing to the word "Weight." Left-click on this triangle to reveal a drop-down list of every weight map in this object. (Figure 1)
 
Figure 1
Figure 1		 Figure 2
Figure 2

STEP 5: In this list, right-click on the text string that says "Left Arm" and select "Copy Vertex Map" from the drop-down list that results. It will suggest calling the new map "Left Arm 1" -- rename this to "Right Arm" and click on "OK." You have just created a copy of the "Left Arm" weight map, called "Right Arm." (Figure 2)

STEP 6: Make "Right" copies of the rest of the "Left" maps, as indicated below:

When all the maps have been copied as "Right" counterparts, the VMaps window should look like Figure 3.

Figure 3
Figure 3

STEP 7: Activate Volume Selection Mode (Ctrl-j). In the Back View, hold down the left mouse button and drag a bounding box over the right half of the model. (Figure 4)

Figure 4
Figure 4

Volume Selection Mode has two types of selecting: Exclude and Include. Exclude is represented by a dotted line; Include is represented by a solid line. Exclude does not consider partially selected polygons to be truly selected; Include considers partially selected polygons to be just as selected as those polygons entirely within the Volume selection boundary.

STEP 8: Ctrl-j toggles between Exclude and Include mode. Type Ctrl-j until the blue line of the bounding box turns into a solid line. (Figure 4)

STEP 9: We don't want the wrong polygons to get selected. Zoom in on the hip area. In the Back View, left-click on the rightmost edge of the bounding box and drag it until it lies safely on the left side of the center seam of points. (Figure 5) Now you don't have to worry about the left side of the model being affected in any way by the following operations. Type a to Autosize the Views again.

Figure 5
Figure 5

STEP 10: Let's clear out any values on the "Left" weight maps that fall into this selected right half of the model. In the VMaps window, left-click on "Left Arm" to make it the current map. Type _ (the "underscore" symbol -- hold down the Shift key and tap the "minus sign" button to create it) to activate the Clear Map command (found as a button in Map > General > Clear Map). Because only the right half of this model is selected, the left half will be untouched as the unwanted right half values disappear from the map.

STEP 11: Leave the right half of the model selected. In the VMaps window, left-click on "Left Clavicle" and type "_" (the "underscore" symbol) to Clear Map. Again, because Modeler cannot, will not touch unselected geometry, the left side of the map is left alone as the right half of the map disappears.

Note: When nothing is selected in Modeler, Modeler considers everything to be "selected."

STEP 12: Repeat this process on every map whose name begins with "Left," until all values on the right-hand side of the body disappear from the "Left" maps. You can get into a rhythm with this -- left-click on the name of the map to select it, type underscore, left-click on the name of the map to select it, type underscore. Select, edit, select, edit.

Figure 6
Figure 6

STEP 13: In the Back View, left-click on the leftmost edge of the Volume Selection bounding box, hold down the left mouse button and drag to the right until it becomes the rightmost edge, bounding the the figure's left half. (Figure 6) You may zoom in to move the bounding box edge near the center to the right of the center, or you may type Ctrl-j to turn this bounding box type to Exclude, to make sure that none of the partially-selected polygons on the right side of the body will be affected. Your call.

STEP 14: Repeat what you did to the "Left" maps for all of the weight maps that start with the word "Right" -- left-click on the name of the map in the VMaps window to select it, and type underscore once to clear out unwanted values on the selected left side of the model.

STEP 15: Look over the maps in the Perspective view to make sure that no map marked "Left" or "Right" has values on both sides of the body. If so, select the offending half of the body and type the underscore key to clear out the unwanted values.

STEP 16: Save this object as torso18.lwo.

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