Using two skeletons on one mesh

[jerzybochenek10]

Hello,

I'm working on a project where I create a skeleton that scales parts of my mesh (eyes, ears, head, body, etc.) and I have a problem. Apart from the skeleton for scaling the mesh I would want to create another one which I can use to animate the 3d model. My question to you is:

Is there a way to bind two separate skeletons to one mesh so that each have two separate skin weights? My problem comes from the fact that the skeleton for scaling the mesh will use different skin weights from the skeleton for animation. Becuase of that I can't just create a complex skeleton, that can do both scaling and animation.

If there is no way to make this happen are there other ways to maybe help me achieve somewhat similar result?

Thank you in advance.

[hamsterHamster]

Use two skins for each and use the scalin' skin as blendshape for movin' skin.

[jerzybochenek10]

But how do I make one mesh have two skin weights? When I just try to bind a second skeleton to a mesh with a frist skeleton already binded to it, it won't let me do that. I couldn't find a thread regarding this kind of problem and the only threads showing up were from users wanting to copy skin weights to another mesh. My problem comes from the fact, that I would want to attach two skin weights to only one mesh.

[jerzybochenek10]

But how do I make one mesh have two skin weights? When I just try to bind a second skeleton to a mesh with a frist skeleton already binded to it, it won't let me do that. I couldn't find a thread regarding this kind of problem and the only threads showing up were from users wanting to copy skin weights to another mesh. My problem comes from the fact, that I would want to attach two skin weights to only one mesh.

[hamsterHamster · Accepted solution]

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@jerzybochenek10 wrote:

 I would want to create another one which I can use to animate the 3d model.
Is there a way to bind two separate skeletons to one mesh so that each have two separate skin weights?

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One skin? Since you wanted two skin clusters, you can't have one skin. Have TWO skins instead - you duplicate existing bound skin and bind it to another [static] skeleton or sets of joints which you will use for body parts scaling only - each skin will have own skeleton and skin weights. All you need is to make scale-influenced skin a blend target for the base skin and set its weight to 1.0. This method would be somewhat unorthodox however, because you can have it all in one skeleton-one skinWeights cluster - parent each scaling joint to a corresponding joint in the base skeleton and add main portion of weights to scale joints, less to base skeleton's joints.