ngSkinTools2: skinning character body

In this video, we take a rig and skin the whole body from start to finish. It's a bit of a lengthy video, so use the chapters to jump around and skip things if bored.

Please note I'm primarily a developer, so take any advice here with a grain of salt, and don't hesitate to ask in the comments if anything was not clear - I'll be happy to answer.

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:45 Prerequisites
01:10 Torso
01:40 Torso: initial weights
01:55 Selecting joints on screen with shortcut S
02:10 Torso: blocking continued
02:46 Torso: setting up automatic mirroring
03:00 Torso: animating the rig for skinning (calysthenics)
04:10 Torso: smoothing & refining
05:10 Shoulders
05:32 Neclace: matching weights of multiple geometry shells
05:52 Shoulders: adjustments continued
06:24 Solving double-geometry intersections with volume smoothing
06:33 Shoulders: adjusting neck
06:54 Shoulders: adjusting neclace
07:17 Shoulders: using vertex selection to limit smoothing
07:32 Shoulders: more adjustments
07:56 Upper arm
08:11 Layer mask (very important!)
08:27 Upper arm: posing
08:45 Mask continued
09:40 Upper arm: refining twists
10:08 Forearm
10:36 Forearm: prepare good test animation
11:24 Forearm: adjusting twist joints
13:51 Finding issues: toggle layers on and off to find the offender
14:10 Taking a step back and checking on the progress
14:30 Hand
15:11 Use extreme poses!
15:37 Disclaimer: go back and fix the rig if you're in trouble, don't fix everything with smoothing
16:14 Hand: reviewing, fixing isues
16:48 Thumb
17:36 Thumb: fixing volume loss
17:52 Thumb: review
18:07 Fingers
18:30 Avoid smoothing on low density geometry, too much volume loss
18:49 Sharpening to preserve volume
19:28 Fingers: masking
20:23 Head
20:33 Warning: fix the rig if you see this
21:28 Fixing neclace to move together with the neck
21:52 Legs
22:19 Damme, Van Damme
23:10 Feet
23:28 Keeping rigidity and shaping the deformation
24:51 Feet: rechecking
25:01 Final notes


Other tutorials for various ngSkinTools2 features:
   • ngSkinTools v2 features overview  

Model: "Lukas" by Malicki (https://www.cgtrader.com/3d-models/ch...)
Rig built using mGear: http://www.mgear-framework.com/