In case anyone needs a summary: First: Make sure you're in Object Mode! 1. Select the clothes (object), then the body (object). (Hold SHIFT to select multiple items) 2. Select "Transfer Mesh Data" from the Object menu (for me in ver. 2.93.0 it was in Object > Link/Transfer Data) 3. Select "Vertex Group(s)" on the "Transfer Mesh Data" menu 4. Under "Source Layers Selection" drop down menu choose "All Layers" 5. Parent the clothes to the rig by selecting the clothes (object) and the body (armature), and under the Object menu select Parent > With Empty Groups 6. Go under pose mode and rotate the model's bones to ensure the clothing moves with the body. Thank you Kaideart for this helpful tutorial. This method worked great for me!
Step 1 is unclear. Are you saying we can Shift select multiple child clothes THEN shift click the Donator body last, and all child clothes will get the same transfer at the same time (from Donator)? (Because I need a way to transfer to multiple meshes at the same time. My current method was select Donator first, shift click new clothes Last, then go to Weight paint mode > transfer weights. But if your step 1 is what I think, then I can select multi meshes, donor last, and transfer to them all.)
Can anyone link me to a vid showing "Nearest Face Interpolated" vs the others? I searched and found nothing here. No hits on goggle. I want a visual comparison to help me remember what is best for bulky armor that doesnt match body vs skin tight.
Another method I've seen others use (and have done myself) is to quite literally duplicate the model and cut it into the shape of the clothes, fatten it slightly in edit/sculpt mode, then retexture it.
Yeah! That’s the method I used to use prior to learning about data transfer, it can be very easy to do but I found if I wanted to really alter the shape the amount of time reweight painting it was a lot of effort, so then I started using this method instead!
Does this method(the one you are talking bout in your comment) have clothing clipping problems or have any way to fix it if it does? I am new to making avatars and am trying to make a few for some friends, but never needed to make clothing.
@@CommitingAChaos It's been a while so I don't quite remember, but with it being stripped directly from the body mesh itself it should share the same weightpainting, so clipping should be minimal.
I keep coming back to this specific tutorial ever time I try and retrofit an asset onto my model to remember how to do this quickly and effectively. Thank you so much for this video.
THANK YOU SO MUCH, I have been agonizing for hours trying to figure out why my model's clothing was not moving with it's body, despite all the vertex group data being transferred to the clothing mesh. Thank you thank you thank you!!
OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH!! I was having a huge problem with the pants of my character for days and your video help me solved it in ten minutes, thank you!
Man you helped me so much, I was stuck on my character mesh and deformations in unreal engine for a couple of months. From all of us at our little indie studio, thanks so much!!!
Thank you for making me laugh about something that genuinely scares the hell out of me is a new creator! This is my first video of yours that I've seen I'm definitely subscribing 💗💗💗
Just spent a day trying to hand weight paint a pair of pants. Glad my work was wasted! On a serious note, I don't really feel that way. This was a great and very useful tutorial! I just wish I found it sooner. 😩 ♥
if you are on blender 3.3 forward, Transfer Mesh Data is now under Link/Transfer Data. New Path Way: On Object Mode, Object > Link/Transfer Data> Transfer Mesh Data
Thank you Kaide! I'm super new to this so it helps a bunch, I'm wondering if I can use this and some other techniques to get sort of a rolling-sleeves-up sorta thing going, like where I can make a shape key that pulls a sleeve up while also shifting the weight paint so that the right bones influence make sense with the sleeve rolled up vs down
Is there an easy way to align the shirt to the characters body in the first place?... I like to take your tutorial but I like to try and find an easy way to do that first!
Currently this can be done with a modifier, the data transfer modifier to be precise, add it to the clothing in question, set the target mesh as the body and select vertex groups and just apply the modifier and done. And *sometimes* automatic weights does good enough job but it seems to hate IK rigs where the odd bits n bobs gain weights and distort apparel models quite horribly..
i wanna just kiss your forehead so hard you brilliant son of a biscuit! you just helped resolve so much "skin tight clothing" issues i have been struggling with for a while.
Could you also make a tutorial on how to actually model the clothes? It's something I find myself struggling with and would be very helpful to see how you do it
First off, great tutorial! It fixed a lot of issues I had. Now I'm having a different type of issue. So my friend wanted help editing his avatar for VRchat, Ive been helping him with that. He wanted shirt and pants "No problem" so as I get the shirt and pants edited to fit his model, I come to find out you can't simply just drag and drop them into Unity. They just float there in the T-pose "Seems like it has no weight painting" Okay after hours of trying to figure it out I come across your video. Import the model, import the clothes, copy the weight painting. Bam no problem. Try to import just the clothes into Unity on his already established avatar.... clothes don't work. If at all possible, is it possible to take the clothes from the model in Blender and import them into unity and have them just work with the model?
I have the add-on installed but nothing for it shows up in the menus, so I can't even use the "object > relations > transfer" function at all. Searching has given nothing recent or helpful
I followed the steps. In Edit Mode when I have the bones and my sock foot selected, there is no option for Vertex Group in the Items tab. Does anyone know what could be causing this?
I don't get that option under relations. not even grayed out. have always used the modifier and have only been looking at this because on my current model it doesn't do it by nearest vertex, it just applies it to the whole mesh which results in absolutely fucky weights
Do you know if there is a way to get just the clothing out of Blender to Unity? I don't want to have to redo an entire model. The clothing item is new to the avatar and the avatar was put together in Unity over a year ago and the model in Blender isn't a fully working model from the creator and taking the clothes out of Blender to Unity makes it not rigged OR crashes software I import it to like VRC.
You tutorials are the best ever!...you actually have a 3D cartoon dragon givin the tutorial!..one little piece of constructive criticism is work on your color grading cuz your exposure is a little bit too high on your dragon... I like this channel to be the best and it's like right there cuz nobody has a 3D character giving a tutorial!
Great Video! Not only did I use the Transfer Mesh data - but the part I need to know now is how you hid the floof parts? It speeds up so I cant tell, lol. Do you have some steps you could share on how to do that?
Look into blendshapes. Basically, you select an object, go to the vertex menu which is the green triangle , you press the + button to create a basis shape then you press the + button a second time to create the blend shape. when you go into edit mode make sure u have this shape selected and you can edit your mesh and those alterations appear on that shape so you can use a slider in unity or blender to then show or hide fur, make ears bigger or smaller, and so on so forth.
Hello, I have a question about the linkage setting of the eyelids and eyelashes of a cartoon character. Can you share the correct way? When I start blinking, my eyelashes always penetrate my eyelids.
AH! So depending on how your eyes are actually set, you actually want the blink shape key to move forward in front of the eye quite a bit! Shapekeys are linear so you need to check in blender that they don't clip through the eyes! Another option is in the general settings you can turn on auto blink, and then turn off smooth auto blink to have the blink work as an ON/OFF type! Hope that helps!
Not bad, I wanted to do the same thing with the armature and the animations from one model to another, it doesn't work for me, besides I wonder if it's possible given the lack of concrete information On the question.
I have the model I want to use and it comes with outfits. I already watched how to import models to VSeeFace and I successfully imported my base model but that doesn't cover how to add or switch the outfits. Is there an easy way to just add the outfits the model comes with in VRM? (The outfits come as separate fbx models) I have no experience with 3d and have absolutely no clue what I'm doing.
Great tutorial! I was wondering, if you wanted to keep the vertex data of the clothing, what option would you use instead of "replace"? Or is this not possible?
Then just parent the clothing mesh to Armature. And it will use the existing vertex data. Not sure if it will match, but thats what you asked for. Instead of replace, I think there is also blends.
hey, i added cloth to my fbx in blender, after exporting my fbx from blender to unity, i notice that i lose all my script/physbones stuff. that's terrible! is it normal? does everyone has to copy them all over again?
I am trying to transfer the meshes from one model to the bones of another model doing that, transferring data from old meshes to new ones, but it doesn't work. Anyone have an idea why?
Thanks for the amazing tutorial. I have one problem. Whenever I apply the data transfer the clothing shifts position slightly and does not attach properly to the mesh. The clothes still moves with the mesh and is attached just not in the right position
Make sure your Armature is in REST pose. Also make sure that when you click on your Meshes, that no shape key is selected (Green triangle icon tab). Only have Basis selected (default state).
You have to make sure you're selecting both the skeleton and the mesh at the same time. Hold Shift while in Object Mode to select the items you want, then Control+P for the menu. First select the Mesh, then select the Skeleton in that order.
The reason to do it this way is by auto weight painting each mesh individually will cause blender to calculate things twice independently, meaning you need to fix a lot on one of the meshes, this way makes it so blender only runs that calculation once and all meshes build off it, making it much faster as a workflow!
thanks ! my friend made me a MMD model but my issue was everything was working but the elbows , the shirt would not follow eveen if i weight painted manually, weirdly , this video bypasses that error .thanks
Can we transfer data from these vertices to those vertices in the same object? My cloth have thickness, and the vertices inside do not weight painted like the outside one :(.
What you can do if there are layers of topology on top of each other is to seperate them temporarily into different objects and then transfer each one from the one below until it’s all moving nicely, then join the objects back together and merge any split vertexs
Select clothing mesh, then Shift select Armature last. Export only those 2 things selected. And there may be specific UE checkboxes. I forgot. When you import the fbx into UE > do not import as a new skeleton, but in the dropbox, select the existing skeleton that belongs to your body mesh. (The operation is import body mesh first AND make new skel. Then import other clothing fbx files - and set them to use the body armature = they all share the same skel = you can set them to follow each other (match animations) using the Set Master Pose node.)
You shouldn't need the bones to be animated, they should just need to be weight painted for them to work! Check the mesh you're wanting to copy data from has vertex groups!
![ポリゴンモデルの関節の分割線 [肘と膝や指など一方方向に曲がる関節の分割方法]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/7DAFS8sga2k/mqdefault.jpg)
In case anyone needs a summary:
First: Make sure you're in Object Mode!
1. Select the clothes (object), then the body (object). (Hold SHIFT to select multiple items)
2. Select "Transfer Mesh Data" from the Object menu (for me in ver. 2.93.0 it was in Object > Link/Transfer Data)
3. Select "Vertex Group(s)" on the "Transfer Mesh Data" menu
4. Under "Source Layers Selection" drop down menu choose "All Layers"
5. Parent the clothes to the rig by selecting the clothes (object) and the body (armature), and under the Object menu select Parent > With Empty Groups
6. Go under pose mode and rotate the model's bones to ensure the clothing moves with the body.
Thank you Kaideart for this helpful tutorial. This method worked great for me!
Step 1 is unclear. Are you saying we can Shift select multiple child clothes THEN shift click the Donator body last, and all child clothes will get the same transfer at the same time (from Donator)?
(Because I need a way to transfer to multiple meshes at the same time. My current method was select Donator first, shift click new clothes Last, then go to Weight paint mode > transfer weights. But if your step 1 is what I think, then I can select multi meshes, donor last, and transfer to them all.)
You get even nicer results when you change the Vertex Mapping to Nearest Face Interpolated. At least in my experience!
YES since making this video I found that out too! So DEFO worth doing this on your models too
Yes it does! I was trying to rig a complicated set of clothes and this helped me overcome a huge issue I had. Thank you internet stranger!
Can anyone link me to a vid showing "Nearest Face Interpolated" vs the others? I searched and found nothing here. No hits on goggle. I want a visual comparison to help me remember what is best for bulky armor that doesnt match body vs skin tight.
OH. MY GOD.
I WAS GOING THROUGH HELL ATTACHING ACCESSORIES TO MY MODELS
THIS IS BLACK MAGIC WHAT??
THANK YOU SO MUCH
you've literally saved my life
Wow, that's the very firs time I manage to do this this after lots of tutorials. I can't believe my eyes! Bless you, man!
THANK YOU FOR THIS OH MY GOD RIGGING HAS BEEN A NIGHTMARE BUT U HELPED A LOT
Another method I've seen others use (and have done myself) is to quite literally duplicate the model and cut it into the shape of the clothes, fatten it slightly in edit/sculpt mode, then retexture it.
Yeah! That’s the method I used to use prior to learning about data transfer, it can be very easy to do but I found if I wanted to really alter the shape the amount of time reweight painting it was a lot of effort, so then I started using this method instead!
Does this method(the one you are talking bout in your comment) have clothing clipping problems or have any way to fix it if it does? I am new to making avatars and am trying to make a few for some friends, but never needed to make clothing.
@@CommitingAChaos It's been a while so I don't quite remember, but with it being stripped directly from the body mesh itself it should share the same weightpainting, so clipping should be minimal.
@@GingerWellyton Ok, thank you for the reply. I hope you are having a great whatever time of day it is where you are.
I keep coming back to this specific tutorial ever time I try and retrofit an asset onto my model to remember how to do this quickly and effectively. Thank you so much for this video.
THANK YOU SO MUCH, I have been agonizing for hours trying to figure out why my model's clothing was not moving with it's body, despite all the vertex group data being transferred to the clothing mesh. Thank you thank you thank you!!
Simply amazing tutorial, very useful.
Can’t wait for the follow up tutorial videos in the character modeling line.
Your voice is simply delightful
This comment was delightful
For anyone that can't find Transfer Mesh Data under Relations tab, they are now in Object => Link/Transfer Data
OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH!!
I was having a huge problem with the pants of my character for days and your video help me solved it in ten minutes, thank you!
You are such a legend! Thanks so much! You are such a good tutorial maker too, you explain why you're doing things so clearly.
This was so succinct and well done!! Instantly going in my blender notes. Thank you Kaide!
oh.. Didn't expect you here lol
Man you helped me so much, I was stuck on my character mesh and deformations in unreal engine for a couple of months. From all of us at our little indie studio, thanks so much!!!
Thank you for this, Ive been weight painting all my commissions clothes by hand and this helps alot and saves me so much time
god damn! I searched really best tutorial cloth/armor rigging by my character! And yeah, this is best tutorial i saw!
God rigging clothes to a character in 3DS max was hell, this looks so much better
Thank you for making me laugh about something that genuinely scares the hell out of me is a new creator! This is my first video of yours that I've seen I'm definitely subscribing 💗💗💗
being a fantastic artist aside, your voice goes so well with your character haha
Thanks! Short and to the point in 2.9+, just what I needed!
goddamn this tutorial is just what i need, saved me hours of looking for solutions
Just spent a day trying to hand weight paint a pair of pants. Glad my work was wasted!
On a serious note, I don't really feel that way. This was a great and very useful tutorial! I just wish I found it sooner. 😩
♥
Thank you. So clear, step by step instructions, without any filler to pad the video's length.
Dude you just saved me a massive headache.
I tried getting these weights right manually and nearly lost my sanity. :D
came for the thumbnail
stayed for the quality blender tutorials.
Thanks Kaide! Your tutorials are really helpful. I've learnt some things I just missed in Blender for years!
I love you! Thank you very much for the explanation, I didn't know how to solve this problem and your tutorial helped me, so I'm very grateful for it.
Im glad it helped you out!
if you are on blender 3.3 forward, Transfer Mesh Data is now under Link/Transfer Data.
New Path Way: On Object Mode, Object > Link/Transfer Data> Transfer Mesh Data
Thank you!!!
I've never used data transfer before, but I will now! Very handy! =D
Thank you for this tutorial, it was really helpful! Also you and your avatar are really cute!
Thank you Kaide! I'm super new to this so it helps a bunch, I'm wondering if I can use this and some other techniques to get sort of a rolling-sleeves-up sorta thing going, like where I can make a shape key that pulls a sleeve up while also shifting the weight paint so that the right bones influence make sense with the sleeve rolled up vs down
Just want i needed. Easy to follow up. Thanks!
"typical youtuber pose"
god how did you describe that with 100% accuracy
One and a half minute tutorial stretched out to a staggering 8. Bro, you're killing me
Yeah and I did that to specifically annoy you in particular
thanks for the quick tutorial
have a good one yea
thank you soooooo much i was having so much trouble trying to rig a pair of pants lol
thanks mate, this saved my life!
Is there an easy way to align the shirt to the characters body in the first place?... I like to take your tutorial but I like to try and find an easy way to do that first!
Currently this can be done with a modifier, the data transfer modifier to be precise, add it to the clothing in question, set the target mesh as the body and select vertex groups and just apply the modifier and done. And *sometimes* automatic weights does good enough job but it seems to hate IK rigs where the odd bits n bobs gain weights and distort apparel models quite horribly..
🤠'that would be so funny partner, if you said what 3D character?..that's me!...🤣ROLF!
i wanna just kiss your forehead so hard you brilliant son of a biscuit!
you just helped resolve so much "skin tight clothing" issues i have been struggling with for a while.
I recently needed something like this, awesome
Could you also make a tutorial on how to actually model the clothes? It's something I find myself struggling with and would be very helpful to see how you do it
Badass intro!
First off, great tutorial! It fixed a lot of issues I had. Now I'm having a different type of issue.
So my friend wanted help editing his avatar for VRchat, Ive been helping him with that. He wanted shirt and pants "No problem" so as I get the shirt and pants edited to fit his model, I come to find out you can't simply just drag and drop them into Unity. They just float there in the T-pose "Seems like it has no weight painting" Okay after hours of trying to figure it out I come across your video. Import the model, import the clothes, copy the weight painting. Bam no problem. Try to import just the clothes into Unity on his already established avatar.... clothes don't work.
If at all possible, is it possible to take the clothes from the model in Blender and import them into unity and have them just work with the model?
So nice and yet simple .. thanks 👍🏻👍🏻
I have the add-on installed but nothing for it shows up in the menus, so I can't even use the "object > relations > transfer" function at all. Searching has given nothing recent or helpful
Cool! Great instruction! So for long, flowing clothes, what are we talking about? Cloth simulation physics?
So for long flowing clothes you'd be looking to use Physics Bones instead!
Beautiful tutorial! Thank you very much
thx bruv you aa bloody legend big kiss from France
Can you update this tutorial for Blender 3.5 please? I'm trying to find Empty Groups, and it's not there...
How do you select different bones to see their effects on the mesh while in weight paint mode?
oh never mind, it's the CTRL key you have to use to switch between bones in weight paint mode.
I followed the steps. In Edit Mode when I have the bones and my sock foot selected, there is no option for Vertex Group in the Items tab. Does anyone know what could be causing this?
Thank you very much for this method, it works perfectly
very helpful and easy to understand thank you!!
U R A LIFE SAVER THANKSSSS
I don't get that option under relations. not even grayed out. have always used the modifier and have only been looking at this because on my current model it doesn't do it by nearest vertex, it just applies it to the whole mesh which results in absolutely fucky weights
If I wanted to do a baggy hoodie with some wrinkles, how would I do that?
This is wonderful, thanks
Great video, thank you!
Do you know if there is a way to get just the clothing out of Blender to Unity? I don't want to have to redo an entire model. The clothing item is new to the avatar and the avatar was put together in Unity over a year ago and the model in Blender isn't a fully working model from the creator and taking the clothes out of Blender to Unity makes it not rigged OR crashes software I import it to like VRC.
damn that worked thank you
can you do it with shoes and how do i make sure after adding shoes that i can still run around in eu5 without flying or clipping?
OH_THANK_GOD,_KAIDE._I_RELAXED_INSTANTLY_IN_MY_SEARCH_FOR_WEIGHT_TRANSFER_TUTORIAL_WHEN_I_SAW_YOUR_FACE
I'm curious about how youre animating your avatar.. do you have a tute on that?
You tutorials are the best ever!...you actually have a 3D cartoon dragon givin the tutorial!..one little piece of constructive criticism is work on your color grading cuz your exposure is a little bit too high on your dragon... I like this channel to be the best and it's like right there cuz nobody has a 3D character giving a tutorial!
Great Video! Not only did I use the Transfer Mesh data - but the part I need to know now is how you hid the floof parts? It speeds up so I cant tell, lol. Do you have some steps you could share on how to do that?
Look into blendshapes. Basically, you select an object, go to the vertex menu which is the green triangle , you press the + button to create a basis shape then you press the + button a second time to create the blend shape. when you go into edit mode make sure u have this shape selected and you can edit your mesh and those alterations appear on that shape so you can use a slider in unity or blender to then show or hide fur, make ears bigger or smaller, and so on so forth.
Will this work for something like an Eyepatch Accessory made in Blender3D? and will this method work with VRoid Models, too?
What about coats that you mentioned ? I have a rigged trench coats and I want to animate it with another character rig
thank you so much this was so helpful!
Hello, I have a question about the linkage setting of the eyelids and eyelashes of a cartoon character. Can you share the correct way?
When I start blinking, my eyelashes always penetrate my eyelids.
AH! So depending on how your eyes are actually set, you actually want the blink shape key to move forward in front of the eye quite a bit! Shapekeys are linear so you need to check in blender that they don't clip through the eyes! Another option is in the general settings you can turn on auto blink, and then turn off smooth auto blink to have the blink work as an ON/OFF type! Hope that helps!
@@Kaideart Thank you for sharing, I will try again.
What does he mean by neutral position ?
Not bad, I wanted to do the same thing with the armature and the animations from one model to another, it doesn't work for me, besides I wonder if it's possible given the lack of concrete information On the question.
thsm! love the voice btw
Thank you so much!
Good shit, thanks.
Very welcome
I did this and it works tysm! but the textures arent loading in the right mode?
Textures could be any number of issues, but the best would be to check your materials and UV maps are alright in the exported model
I have the model I want to use and it comes with outfits. I already watched how to import models to VSeeFace and I successfully imported my base model but that doesn't cover how to add or switch the outfits. Is there an easy way to just add the outfits the model comes with in VRM? (The outfits come as separate fbx models)
I have no experience with 3d and have absolutely no clue what I'm doing.
Great tutorial! I was wondering, if you wanted to keep the vertex data of the clothing, what option would you use instead of "replace"? Or is this not possible?
Then just parent the clothing mesh to Armature. And it will use the existing vertex data. Not sure if it will match, but thats what you asked for.
Instead of replace, I think there is also blends.
hey, i added cloth to my fbx in blender, after exporting my fbx from blender to unity, i notice that i lose all my script/physbones stuff. that's terrible!
is it normal? does everyone has to copy them all over again?
I am trying to transfer the meshes from one model to the bones of another model doing that, transferring data from old meshes to new ones, but it doesn't work. Anyone have an idea why?
Thanks for the amazing tutorial. I have one problem. Whenever I apply the data transfer the clothing shifts position slightly and does not attach properly to the mesh. The clothes still moves with the mesh and is attached just not in the right position
Make sure your Armature is in REST pose. Also make sure that when you click on your Meshes, that no shape key is selected (Green triangle icon tab). Only have Basis selected (default state).
When is the modelling part gonna come out?
whenever i try to ctrl p the "select Parent > With Empty Groups" doesnt appear, is there a different way to do this?
You have to make sure you're selecting both the skeleton and the mesh at the same time.
Hold Shift while in Object Mode to select the items you want, then Control+P for the menu.
First select the Mesh, then select the Skeleton in that order.
Thanks man you are awesome !!!
WTF? i can weight paint as i pose it ! i have been dying to know how to do this for ever now and it was so simple
how do i join 2 meshes without loosing the weightpaint?
will this work for more low poly models?
i dont have transfer mesh data
why not select the mesh + the clothe and armature and automatic weight ? what's the difference please ?
The reason to do it this way is by auto weight painting each mesh individually will cause blender to calculate things twice independently, meaning you need to fix a lot on one of the meshes, this way makes it so blender only runs that calculation once and all meshes build off it, making it much faster as a workflow!
@@Kaideart wow thanks i tried it and it was really effective
thank you
how do we make clothes toggles? like rexouiums have a fox hoodie hoodie crop top t shirt skirt pants shorts short shorts ect
search "blender how to make shapekeys"
thanks ! my friend made me a MMD model but my issue was everything was working but the elbows , the shirt would not follow eveen if i weight painted manually, weirdly , this video bypasses that error .thanks
Glad I could help!
Do shape keys transfer too?
Can we transfer data from these vertices to those vertices in the same object? My cloth have thickness, and the vertices inside do not weight painted like the outside one :(.
What you can do if there are layers of topology on top of each other is to seperate them temporarily into different objects and then transfer each one from the one below until it’s all moving nicely, then join the objects back together and merge any split vertexs
@@Kaideart Thank you so much! I will try :D
Hey thanks for the tutorial. But one very important question for me is, how to export the single shirt into unreal to use it with my character? ;)
Select clothing mesh, then Shift select Armature last. Export only those 2 things selected. And there may be specific UE checkboxes. I forgot.
When you import the fbx into UE > do not import as a new skeleton, but in the dropbox, select the existing skeleton that belongs to your body mesh.
(The operation is import body mesh first AND make new skel. Then import other clothing fbx files - and set them to use the body armature = they all share the same skel = you can set them to follow each other (match animations) using the Set Master Pose node.)
it be sweet if there an Tutorial like nardoragon Clothes to a rexouium... >,
i dont have any animation on the bones yet. does that matter?
i went to the relations tab and it didnt give any option to transfer data
You shouldn't need the bones to be animated, they should just need to be weight painted for them to work! Check the mesh you're wanting to copy data from has vertex groups!
You lost me at "Hello"