Blender Skinning/Rigging tip
Well, maybe it’s not a tip, but for me, it’s all new. I’m not really well versed in skinning and rigging, yet, so I learned something quite useful while watching a YouTube video.
first, put an armature modifier on the mesh so that it’s linked to the rig. Then select the rig. Then shift-select the mesh. (oh, the rig should be in ctrl-tab pose mode). Then go back to the mesh (both selected), and enter weight paint mode. Now you can select the bone (right click it) and start painting your skinning weight for that bone. You can enter f-key for painting mask – this lets you select certain faces that you can paint on, effectively masking your targeted area. Great for fingers and toes and tight spots. You can rotate/move the bone a little bit to make sure it’s influenced properly, and keep painting in real-time to make sure it’s all skinned properly.
I did an emperor penguin model and rig, with plans to animate it one day. It’s the first skinning job I’ve done (outside of auto-skinning/envelope bones), so hopefully it animates well.
