Disappearing Materials After Parenting

Maya
1

Hi folks, running into a little problem here and was hoping somebody could lead me in the right direction to fix it.

I'm setting up a rig for a character and I've got a full skeleton and a low poly proxy mesh. I'm parenting the shape node of each chunk of the proxy mesh to the corresponding joint on the skeleton so that the animator can pose the character by just clicking and manipulating the proxy mesh.

Problem is, when I do this, the shader on the proxy mesh disappears, leaving only a jet black silhouette. What is causing this and how can I fix it? I am using Maya 6.0.1.

Thanks for any help you can give!

2

material reassignment don't work?
are bones in some display layer?
what method You use to parent?
what shader connections to shape node are after it becomes black?