Mirror Direction Options Naming Weights ToolWeights
Point Options
With the Point Method you can select from four methods for transferring the weighting in the best possible way by matching the right points on both sides of the mesh. Different situations can lead to satisfactory results It’s a good idea to experiment with the methods to get the best result. You can select from the following methods:
This method searches for a matching counterpart precisely at the mirrored position of each point. The point that lies nearest to the respective counterpart and within the defined Tolerance radius will be selected.
This method selects the nearest point without taking the radius into account.
This method searches on the surface of the mesh for the location nearest the mirrored position of each point. This can also be a position at the center of the polygon. The original point’s weighting will then be transferred to the points on the polygon.
This methods works similarly to the Surface method only that a ray is projected from the mirrored position of each point along the point’s Normals. The location on the surface that is hit by the ray will then be used.
This parameter is only available if Search is set to Distance. It defines the radius from the mirrored position within which the tool searches for a matching point.
Joint Options
The Joint Options are used to locate fitting joint flows and use these as mirror targets. Put differently: It is not necessary to define a target for weight mirroring. The algorithm will automatically find the right joints to which the mirrored weighting should be assigned. This bears the advantage that the weighting of an entire mesh can be mirrored with the click of a button. In doing so, the weighting of joints that run along the mirror plane will be taken into consideration (which, for example, is the case for spline ("spine") joints whose weighting will also be mirrored).
Defines the method used as the first pass for the Joint influence matching algorithm.
The mirror function will look for matching hierarchies to run its algorithm on. For example, the left and right leg of a character might share a similar structure (thigh, shin, foot joints). The search function will find a matching parent and mirror influences quickly throughout its hierarchy based on the mirror plane. In case of multiple matches, a second pass might be necessary for this mode to assign influences properly.
This mode searches for the closest position coordinates of the Joints being mirrored, relative to the Mirror Plane.
This parameter is only available if Pass 1 or Pass 2 are set to Position. It defines the radius from the mirrored position within which the tool searches for a matching joint position.
This mode expands on the Position mode by providing a dynamic variable position matching based on the density of joints. The closer the joints to be mirrored are, the smaller the search threshold will be, so matching joints can be found more accurately without encompassing incorrect joints. This mode will also increase the search radius for joints that are further apart at the same time, this is why this mode uses percentages (parameter Partitioning Factor), as the search distance can be variable and does not rely on a hard value.
This parameter is only available if Pass 1 or Pass 2 are set to Partitioning. It defines the range of variable threshold to be used and allows an increase or decrease of the proportional search radius for each joint.
This mode leaves the weight matching up to the user, based on naming conventions that may have been followed to find matching joint names on either side of the mirror plane.
This option will determine whether or not the name searching is case sensitive.
Defines a specific word to search for that will identify the joints as being on the left side of the mirror plane. For example, the left arm of a character might be named Arm_L. In this case, adding _L to that parameter will ensure that the algorithm identifies this specific joint as being on the left side of the mirror plane.
Defines a specific word to search for that will identify the joints as being on the right side of the mirror plane. If we take the previous cited example, the left arm can easily be matched to the right arm, if the right arm is named Arm_R and we add _R as specific word/letters to look for with this parameter.
If needed, a second pass may be applied to the mirror function to ensure that a match is found. As a general rule of thumb, you will want to use a different mode for this second pass, in case the first pass fails on a few joints using a specific method (for example, using Position as a first pass, with Name as a second pass will ensure that Joints closely matching in position on the mirror plane will be mirrored properly using a specific naming convention as a second criteria).
Off disables the second Pass. The description of the other options can be found under Pass 1 (see above).Pass 1.
This function mirrors the weighting for selected joints. Note that the Mirror Weights command is separate from the Mirror command (Tool menu). With Mirror Weights, the mirror algorithm uses the Joint Options, whereas the normal Mirror command uses the simplified settings of the point options settings.