Rigging proposal

[toRigOrNotToRig]

I don't quite have time to help you to the extent that you're asking, but as someone who has rigged in both Maya and Max, might I suggest you turn off the envelopes, ignore them completely, and paint skin weights on the vertices. I'm not kidding, it is so much easier and is a heck of a lot faster, at least IMHO.

In the Paramaters of the Skin rollout, check "Vertices" and uncheck "Envelopes" and "Cross Sections"

In the Display part of that same rollout, check "Show No Envelopes"

I can give you the settings for the paint weights tool, because the default is absolute crap.

Min Strength: 0
Max Strength: .2 or less usually (adjust for how strong you want the brush to be, to add to the weights)
Min Size: 0
Max Size: depends on your scene size, usually much less than the default, it also depends on where you are painting, a large area is bigger, a small area smaller

uncheck "Draw Trace"
Normal Scale: 0, or a number to match your scene scale

Painting adds weight to the vertices, to subtract weight, hold ALT while painting, or you can put a negative number into "Max Strength"

You can check "paint blend weights" and it will average the weights between bones for you. Max will rely on what bone you have selected for that though so I don't usually find it very helpful, as you have to switch back and forth between bones. Remember the strength number that you put in determines how much it pulls or pushes.

Painting with the Paint Weights tool works well for large areas and to rough out the weights. You can adjust the size of your brush accordingly and get everything roughed out pretty quickly. You will then need to use the weight tool (looks like a wrench in the parameters section) and paint individual vertices for small areas, like around the mouth and the eyes. Remember, that weights should be spread across bones and overlap, especially where there are deformations like the shoulders.

Maybe some people can effectively skin a character using the envelopes, but I find it completely counter-intuitive and a massive waste of my time.

[Applestarr]

Thank you so much for helping me out like that, I really appreciate it.

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