Hello Dev’s! i’m pretty new in scripting influences and skins.
I want to do it in python.cmds as i’m not used to do API at all and to keep my code consistent, to not lose myself on something i don’t clearly understand.
I wanted to know if someone knows how to create a softMod and transfer his weights to a specific joint influences for a given skinCluster. Not a soft selection, a softMod.
SoftMod A --> transfer weight to joint A on skinCluster1 for exemple.
Cheers!
Ssky.
What are you trying to do exactly? Are you just regretting using a softMod and now want to transfer it to skinCluster? Or are you planning on doing this often, like a tool? And if so, why? (I ask, because it might lead to a better alternative.)
Otherwise, this technique from Ryan Porter might interest you. He shows a way to make the softMods work in parallel without interfering with each other or double-transforming: https://yantor3d.wordpress.com/2016/12/03/parallel-deformers/
Example file: https://github.com/yantor3d/maya_examples/blob/master/parallel_deformers_example.ma
hello Chris! i want to make it part of a face skin process, i mean i would like to store joints position, get the closest face or vertex and create a softMod at this postions, store the weights and send it to the selected joint. The goal is to have a first pass of skinning based on soft deformations.
I found this, wich is pretty close, but it’s API and it’s based on soft selection, so you can’t really add small rig on top for the user. At the end i would like to be able to edit de skin by moving/offseting/change fallOff of those softMods then transfer again new influences.
I’m quite new at scripting and so i miss some tech knowledge.
In my research i also found this:
This is pretty interesting but once again API, that i don’t truly understand and so i’m not able to think about how modify the code to transfer to joints instead of clusters.
Cheers! And thank you for your attention! 
Still stuck here, got also another detail, if i get the influence on joint, i still get some normalization problem no?? Is it ok is i put the skin on post, transfer weights then normalize? Is this process ok?
Again, may I ask why you are doing this? Is there some aspect of the skinning process you are trying to avoid, or have you come up with some new novel way of skinning?
If you are just trying to get faster at skinning or avoid painting weights, use ngSkinTools and call it a day.
already explained the idea in the second post.
Because using NG needs you to manage your layers and get your first pass, you need to do blocking, then merge your layers and then smooth your weights etc etc. i would like to get it faster at blocking weights, and using softMod allows you to lock a precise area, then get a first decent smooth pass, so it’s two in one procedure. That’s why i’m looking of that way. Just to be faster ! Especially on face skinning, because it’s a lot of smooth skinned area, mixed and blended. For the mouth for exemple, just place a softmod, set your falloff and it’s done, just need to transfer on the joint.
Hope the workFlow i’m trying to get in the face skinning process make sense.
Thx for the quick answer!