Paint blendshape weights after painting clusterweights?

[schlook]

Hi there,
I've got a problem with painting blend shape weights in Maya, i've found this bug in all the versions i've tried. What happens is that when i try to paint blendshape weights AFTER having painted cluster weights the brush pointer just comes up with a red cross and the mesh is unpaintable. I can still paint cluster weights tho.

Is there any good workaround for this out there that i don't know about? At the moment I have to restart maya everytime i want to paint blendshape weights after painting cluster weights, which can get a little frustrating..

 I've been trying to find a solution to this for a while so any help would be appreciated.

Thanks  in advance.

[joojaa]

Hmm... sounds like gfx card glitch. TRy fiddling around with the per vertex coloring tools to see if it resets itself.

Also try see what happens if you reset prefts temporarily.

[schlook]

Thanks Joojaa, but that does not solve the problem, I've tried it on my two computers at home with different gfx cards and at work at several workstations, also with different gfx cards.
Resetting prefs didn't do anything either, nor did the per vtx coloring.

I thought it might be some attribute being set by painting clusterweights that resets when you restart maya but i can't find anything like that.
any other ideas ?

Thanks.

[joojaa]

what version of maya? I cant seem to be able to replicate this.

[schlook]

Hey, I've been getting this same thing in 2009,2010 and now 2011. 
I just set up a quick scene to try it. here are the steps.

create a sphere and then add a cluster to it.
go into paint cluster weights option box.
change the weights around.

Then create two spheres and make a blend between the two new spheres.
Then click the paint blendshape weights option box.
Also in the "target" slot in the tool options you can't see the target/targets.

Can you still paint blendshape weights if you set it up like this?

Thanks for helping out Joojaa!

[schlook]

OK after a bit more digging I think the problem is with the "filter" button in the pain cluster weights window. If i set that one to all before i go back to paint blendshape weights it seems to work.
I've been looking through the "artAttrBlendShapeToolScript"(which seems to be the one that controlls the artisan settings for the blendshape weights) and the "artAttrToolScript" which seems to be the one controlling the cluster weight painting.
in the artAttrToolScript there are a lot of filters going on,
Does anyone a bit more mel/python savvy than me havy any idea how to reset the filer with a line of code?
I've tried the makePaintable command without success..
Any ideas?

Thanks.

[schlook]

Ok i just found the line of code i can use to set the filter to 'all' in the paint cluster weights window.

artAttrSetFiler "all" artAttrCtx; it's like that if any one is interested. ( It's spelled like that for some reason)

Thanks.

[lenfan]

I encountered this problem as well.
My solution is painting weights (cluster or blendShape) through the pop-up menu when right-clicking on the object, not through the Editor Deformers from the Animation Main Menu.
Around the middle part of pop-up menu you can locate to paint -> blendShape and paint weights.

[daardees]

../../../users/schlook/forumsSorry if I up an old topic, I dunno..

But first Great Job Schlook !! I was resigned about it since so long..

If it may help to make this permanent and automatic, put the artAttrSetFiler "all" artAttrCtx; command (great job Schlook !!) in the artAttrValues.mel files after the line artAttrSetPaintableNode();

Apologize if this is useless

Dave