Problem Rigging Fingers - Bones Will Bend But Not the Fingers Themselves

[GalaxyDogenut]

I'm also done rigging a model to port to SFM... but the fingers on it just won't seem to rig. I created a new hand model to rig... but the same problem happens there. And yes... I was in pose mode while trying to rig the fingers.

[Stretchyf]

In Blender you can easily check weights assigned for finger bones. Go to Weight Paint mode, select any finger bone with Ctrl + mouse click and see weights. To activate Weight Paint mode correctly you need to switch the armature to Object Mode, select it, Shift select the character mesh, and only then go to Weight Paint mode.

Also check that finger bones are deforming bones. In Blender, every bone has 'Deform' flag you can access at the 'Bone Properties' tab. And bones without 'Deform' flag do not deform anything, no matter the weights.

[GalaxyDogenut]

Originally posted by Stretchyf:

In Blender you can easily check weights assigned for finger bones. Go to Weight Paint mode, select any finger bone with Ctrl + mouse click and see weights. To activate Weight Paint mode correctly you need to switch the armature to Object Mode, select it, Shift select the character mesh, and only then go to Weight Paint mode.

Also check that finger bones are deforming bones. In Blender, every bone has 'Deform' flag you can access at the 'Bone Properties' tab. And bones without 'Deform' flag do not deform anything, no matter the weights.

Thank you, I'll test this out.

[GalaxyDogenut]

Originally posted by Stretchyf:

In Blender you can easily check weights assigned for finger bones. Go to Weight Paint mode, select any finger bone with Ctrl + mouse click and see weights. To activate Weight Paint mode correctly you need to switch the armature to Object Mode, select it, Shift select the character mesh, and only then go to Weight Paint mode.

Also check that finger bones are deforming bones. In Blender, every bone has 'Deform' flag you can access at the 'Bone Properties' tab. And bones without 'Deform' flag do not deform anything, no matter the weights.

Ok... all the bones have their Deform flags checked, and I can't manage to check the weights for them. I can go into Weight Paint mode easily, but the shortcut to select the bones doesn't seem to work for me.

[Stretchyf]

Originally posted by GalaxyDogenut:

Ok... all the bones have their Deform flags checked, and I can't manage to check the weights for them. I can go into Weight Paint mode easily, but the shortcut to select the bones doesn't seem to work for me.

You do not need to go into Weight Paint mode easily - you need to do it correctly Had you both armature and character mesh selected before going to Weight Paint? Do you use standard controls setup with LMB select for Blender or selecting with RMB?

Also you can check your weights right in mesh editmode. You have Vertex Groups block at Object Data properties, so you can select any of finger vertex groups, press "Select" and see does this vertex group contains any vertices at all or not. Also in Editmode you can select any vertex and see all its weights at N-panel, Item tab. You can try this on any vertex that doesn't move right.

Maybe your character hands are separate object? Then check does your hands have Armature modifier on them or parented to the armature with 'Parent Type: Armature'.

Actually it is a pain to troubleshoot issues via a message board - there are so many possibilities for making mistakes while working with Blender so usually it is easier and faster to look into .blend-file directly and find what is wrong. Not always possible though.

[GalaxyDogenut]

Originally posted by Stretchyf:

Originally posted by GalaxyDogenut:

Ok... all the bones have their Deform flags checked, and I can't manage to check the weights for them. I can go into Weight Paint mode easily, but the shortcut to select the bones doesn't seem to work for me.

You do not need to go into Weight Paint mode easily - you need to do it correctly Had you both armature and character mesh selected before going to Weight Paint? Do you use standard controls setup with LMB select for Blender or selecting with RMB?

Also you can check your weights right in mesh editmode. You have Vertex Groups block at Object Data properties, so you can select any of finger vertex groups, press "Select" and see does this vertex group contains any vertices at all or not. Also in Editmode you can select any vertex and see all its weights at N-panel, Item tab. You can try this on any vertex that doesn't move right.

Maybe your character hands are separate object? Then check does your hands have Armature modifier on them or parented to the armature with 'Parent Type: Armature'.

Actually it is a pain to troubleshoot issues via a message board - there are so many possibilities for making mistakes while working with Blender so usually it is easier and faster to look into .blend-file directly and find what is wrong. Not always possible though.

Alright. I'll test these things. Thank you for the help.

[Stretchyf]

Good luck in resolving the issue!

[GalaxyDogenut]

Originally posted by Stretchyf:

Good luck in resolving the issue!

Thank you again.