Weightlifter

by Michel's add-ons & more in Addons


A fully illustrated manual in PDF format with a Q&A section is part of the download, this overview just gives you a taste of the possibilities.


Installation

NOTE: if you have already installed a previous version of WeightLifter you have to remove it first by going to File -> User preferences -> Add ons -> Paint . Open Paint:WeightLifter and click Remove.

  • Unzip WeightLifter.zip to a suitable location,
  • Open Blender and select from the menu File -> User preferences …,
  • In the dialog that opens, click Addons and then Install from file …,
  • In the File selection dialog that opens, locate weightlifter.py in the directory that you unpacked,
  • Click the Install from file button to install the add-on and then check the box to the right of Paint:WeightLifter to enable it.

WeightLifter will now be available both in Weight Paint mode and in Vertex Paint mode.

Enabling Weightlifter

To use WeightLifter you will have to enable if you have not yet done so on installation. It can be found in the Paint section of File -> User preferences … -> Addons. Once enabled WeightLifter is available in Weight Paint mode from the Weights menu and in Vertex Paint mode from the Paint menu.

Visibility

The visibility modes create vertex groups or vertex color layers based on the visbility of a vertex from som vantage point. This vantage point can be a camera, a lamp or the 3d cursor.

Camera

Camera mode colors vertices based on the visibility from a camera.

Camera The Camera option lets you select the active camera or any other camera that might be present in the scene.

Camera Margin The Camera Margin option aloows for an extra number of vertices selected just outside the camera field of view.

Lamp

Lamp mode colors vertices based on the visibility from a lamp.

Lamp The Camera option lets you select any lamp in the scene. WeightLifter will take into account the shape of the light cone as well.

Area Samples This options let's you control the accuracy of the visibility tests for area lights. Higher is better but slower.

Cursor

Cursor mode colors vertices based on the visibility from a lamp.

Common visibility options

All visibility modes share the following options:

Full Scene When Full Scene is checked (the default), other objects in the scene may block visibility.

Distance Weight     When Distance Weight is checked 9the default), vertex weights or colors will vary according to the distance to the reference object.

Crease

The Crease mode assigns weights or colors to vertices based on the local curvature: sharp ridges and deep creases will receive more weight than slowly ndulating part of the mesh.

Height & Slope

The Height & Slope modes create vertex groups or vertex color layers based on geometric properties of the mesh.

Height Height mode will assign weights or colors based on the elevation of a vertex relative to a reference axis.     

Slope Slope mode will assign weights or colors based on the steepness of the slope near a vertex relative to a reference axis.         

Lower limit Controls the angle below which all slopes will receive zero weight.         

Upper limit Controls the angle above which all slopes will receive a weight of one.

Mirror When checked, negative slopes will be treated the same a positive slopes.     

Common Height & Slope options The Height & Slopes modes share the follow options:         

Reference axis Default is the global Z-axis but any global or local axis can be selected here as well as the the line from mesh origin to the 3d cursor.         

World space Let's you choose between world space and local space. Local space will assign the same weights to parts of the mesh regardless of how it is scaled or moved.

Connected & Random

The Connected & Random modes create vertex groups or vertex color layers with random values.

Connected The Connected will assign the same random value to groups of connected vertices.

Random The Random mode will assign a random value to each vertex in the mesh (techniclly to each loop)         

Uniform faces When checked uniform colors are assigned to each face. This option is only available in Vertex Paint mode.     

Common Connected and Random options        

Random seed Changing the seed wel select a different random pattern.

Additional options All modes share some additional options Weight paint mode         

Add modifier When checked a weight edit modifier is added to the mesh. This will allow you to tweak the weight distribution. Vertex paint mode

Monochrome When checked only greyscale colors will be assigned. This is the option to use if you want a value in Cycles rather than the color itself.

Low color, Mid color, High color These options let you choose the color spectrum.


 

Sales 200+
Customer Ratings 3
Average Rating
Dev Fund Contributor
Published over 9 years ago
Blender Version 2.78, 2.79, 2.8, 2.83, 2.92, 2.93, 3.3, 3.6, 4.0
License GPL
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