Duplicating a rig for a different mesh

[Anonymous]

Ok. For a rigged and skinned character. I duplicated the mesh and made my blendshapes on my new mesh, sitting right next to the original on the same scene. Just some simple muscle shape differences. So the models are extremely close and are in the same scene (file, pardon my newbie lingo). How can I copy the existing rig from the original model and bind it to my new mesh?

Thanks guys!

[Anonymous]

Oh, Maya 2017

[stephenkmann]

select all your joints from the bound skin, 

 you can easily do this by graphing the skinCluster in the node Editor.. you will see all the joints connected in . 

 ( if you don't have an easier way to select all the joints) 

skin your new mesh to the same joints. 

 copy the skin wts from the old mesh, to the new mesh

skin -> copy skin wts

if your uvs are identical that is usually your best option. 

and then I usually use by label ( but that only works if you label your joints)

 then by name, 

and then by closest joint

hth

-=s

[mujuningaiza]

group your old rig, then under common menu go to Edit>Duplicate Special (Options) choose duplicate input graph.

Re-bind if you need so, for skin weight use copy skin weight or export weight and import both should work as well.

Mark it as an asnwer if it will solve your problem.