Procedural Methods for Skinning Humanoid Characters

Abstract

The procedure for setting vertex weights is a very time consuming and difficult task for any 3D model artist. Therefore, the use of procedural methods to facilitate this procedure is very important. This article analyzes various skinning techniques and identifies their advantages and disadvantages. The most frequent variants of skinning defects that arise when using standard approaches are described. The analysis of tools for skinning in the Maya 3D modeling environment has been carried out. Methods for solving some of the existing problems are proposed, but do not imply a procedural solution. Also, on the basis of neural networks, an idea of their own solution was proposed as an additional tool for the Maya program. This tool will overcome most of the disadvantages of other methods and speed up the skinning process of the model.