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Envelopes: Correcting the weighting

Did you know that...

Even though XSI does its best to automatically assign the points of an envelope to deformers, you might want to tweak or modify certain assignments manually. So, in XSI, we made sure that it would be a pleasant experience to re-weight.

The "d" key on your keyboard will now become your best friend! Let's try it on a simple sphere so you understand the principle behind it:

1. Choose Get > Primitive > Poly. Mesh > Sphere.
2. From the Animate toolbar, choose Create > Skeleton > 2D Chain, then draw a 2-bone chain inside the sphere.
3. Select the sphere.
4. Choose Deform > Envelope > Set Envelope, then branch-pick the chain.
5. Press Ctrl+w to display the Brush Properties.
6. Change the Weight Paint Mode to "Set Weight" and the Brush Opacity to 100, then close the Brush properties editor.
7. Press the "w" key to activate the Paint tool. You will notice that colored weight maps are displayed on the sphere (those colors represent the weight assignments of points to bones).
8. Press the "d" key, then pick a bone for which to paint weights.
9. Start to paint on the object and notice the color changing.
10. Move the effector of the chain and notice the weight assignments have been modified.

Even though this looks like a simple example, it is just a reminder that the "d" key is practical for choosing deformers quickly under the geometry of an object.

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