[Algorithms] Algo for weight assignment in skinned animation

[Bill B. <wb...@gm...>]

Is there any standard algorithm used for automatically assigning
reasonable bone weights to vertices in a mesh, given just the mesh and
the skeleton?  (I.e. you have no animation data, so you can't use
observed deformations to guide how to assign the weights as in James &
Twigg's "Skinning Mesh Animations").   And in particular are there any
algorithms which work within a per-vertex weight budget constraint, so
that you can use hardware skinning effectively?   I've been looking
around, but haven't been able to find anything.

Thanks,
--bb