Transferring rig weights from one mesh to another in blender 2.76

Question

I've recently started using blender in order to create my own models for games and such. I have created a model, rigged it, created clothes separately and now I want to add those clothes to my model so that it moves with the rig without the skin poking through.

So there are many solutions that use the weight transfer tool but I can't seem to get this working with blender 2.76. I parent the rig to the clothes with empty weight groups under the deform option. I then, selecting the mesh and then the piece of clothing, go to weight paint mode and choose the 'transfer weights' option under the tools section but the weights dont actually get transfered, nothing happens.

All the tutorials online use previous versions of blender and so the interface of options when choosing to transfer weights is different which could mean that I am just selecting the wrong options (I tried messing with them but nothing works).

Any help will be appreciated. I can post pictures later if need be.

Thanks

Answer 1

For the sanity of others:

For some reason, the weights do not transfer automatically in Blender 2.76 however it works perfectly in previous versions. What you can do instead is use the data transfer modifier. Before you start, make sure you clear any vertex groups created when you parented the rig and unparent the item of clothing from the rig. So click on the object data tab and if there are any groups under vertex groups, delete them with the minus button on the side.

Now go to the modifers tab > add modifier > data transfer. Select the source from which you wish to copy the weights over (the main body). Choose vertex data from the options and then select vertex groups. Finally press the generate data layers button at the bottom.

Now if you switch back to the object-data tab, there should be a listing of the bones of your armature under vertex groups.

Lastly, enter object mode > select your piece of clothing and then shift select your rig > CNTRL+P > with empty groups. And wa-lah!

I also had some other issues because of other modifers I had (the mesh was deforming weirdly) but I managed to fix it by simply applying the data transfer modifier.

Enjoy :)