Esoteric Software

[Nate]

Spine 1.9.15+ now has automatic skinning weight computation! It uses extremely sophisticated algorithms to determine the best weights for smooth skinning deformation. This provides a good foundation for your weights and greatly reduces the amount of weights that need to be adjusted manually.

Special thanks to Alec Jacobson and Thomas Åhlén! Without their help, Spine wouldn't have such cool features.

Weights are computed automatically for the first set of bones bound to a mesh. You can also apply auto weights any time by clicking Auto on the Weights dialog:



Another feature we'll most likely have coming in the future is the ability to automatically generate a mesh that deforms well. For example:



Of course you are unlikely to need as many triangles as shown here unless you are exporting images or video. Generating the mesh and computing the weights automatically removes a lot of manual labor and makes the workflow quite efficient: add your image as a mesh, bind bones to it, animate your bones. This lets you focus more on animation and less on setup.

[Pharan]

YES!


I'd love to do some tests on how many triangles/subdivisions you actually need so the deforms look smooth and its effect on scalability.

[Nate]

You want as few vertices as possible for best performance, since they are transformed on the CPU. You can always edit the mesh to add more points if you find it isn't deforming as needed, even after animations are done.

A good workflow is to use auto weights, then smooth where needed. The workflow from scratch:

1. Add a region attachment and check Mesh.
2. Click Edit Mesh, then Set Points and click to create the mesh hull.
3. Click Create (in the Edit Mesh dialog) and create points along the hull and inside the mesh as needed for your mesh to deform as you need. This step would be replaced by "generate mesh", when that is in.
4. Click Create (in the main toolbar) and draw your bones on top of the mesh.
5. Click Weights, then Bind and click the bones to bind to the mesh. Click Bind again when done and weights are computed automatically.
6. Click Pose and see how the mesh deforms. To not mess up your setup pose, either use undo afterward or, better, do it in Animate mode.
7. Right click to go back to the previous tool (Weights, note your selection was preserved). Drag to select a group of vertices then click Smooth 1-3 times.
8. Right click to go back to the previous tool (Pose) and try out the new weights.
9. Repeat steps 7 and 8 as many times as needed.

[Yak]

Woah! can't wait for this new feature, its gonna save us a lot of time.
Keep up the good work!

[Orphin]

I just bought the Pro version of this software for my small studio and I have to say, you are truly amazing for releasing this software and the updates at the rate your team does. Truly amazing. I really hope to see that new feature sometime in the near future.

[Pharan]

I'm not sure which version got it, but thanks for highlighting the curve between keys too when you select a key. That's a really nice touch. Better represents the selection, and makes it much more visible too! It could stand to be a bit brighter to that end though. But that it changes color at all helps.

[BlackCapApps]

It's freaking awesome how paint the asset is more slow than make the animation even without going too cut-out look thanks to FFD.
This tool is really well made.

My only complain is that I can't see or set the precise vertex position in the world by typing the value or set a custom transformation point.
I think if Spine uses the standard method of matrix transformation for all the operations this will no be a big deal to allow us to do that.
But well, if I'm wrong and isn't possible just let it go.

Thanks for the great work.

[Soap]

This feature is super useful. I finally tested it today and was delighted how well it made weights. Looking forward to automatic mesh generation too!

[Freidenker01]

Automatically generating meshes sounds usefull from a animating point of view.
I'm no coder though - so I wonder if that many triangles will effect performance a lot when used ingame. I guess it will make no recognizable difference on PC but as I'm working for a mobile games company I'm more interested in that particullar case. I mean there aren't just high end devices out there ;-)

[Nate]

You wouldn't use so many vertices for mobile. You'd have to benchmark exactly what you are doing to see how it affects performance.

[Gelit]

Awesome feature ! Is there some videos or tutorials coming out soon with details ?

thanks for your nice work !

[Søren]

Yeah new videos for an entire range of features are coming out soon

[Gelit]

Yeah new videos for an entire range of features are coming out soon

So I'm waiting for it !

[ickythegreat]

Super excited to see the videos as well! ETA on them by any chance?

[Nate]

Yes Shiu, when will we get our videos?

I've been writing some new documentation:
http://esotericsoftware.com/spine-documentation/
That page is getting unwieldy, we'll organize it better soon. I may be able to get to creating docs for how to use meshes soon.

[Søren]

Soon! (TM)

[Soap]

Has automatic mesh generated been added?

[Nate]

Automatic mesh generation has been in for a long time. You can find it on the Edit Mesh dialog, click the Generate button. If the mesh has points in the four corners, clicking Generate will create a uniform grid. Otherwise it is smart about how it places the internal vertices.

Auto weights are fixed in 2.1.09, they should no longer complain that weights could not be computed -- unless you have bones that intersect. The message has been updated to make this clear.

[Pharan]

Thanks, Nate!

Always nice to have good feedback from the program.
It popped up for me when I was doing weights for IK chicken but selecting the Weights tool seemed to fix it. (as mentioned in the other thread)