[Blender] Adjust Vertex Weights
RafaelNavegaThis intuitive tool lets you easily adjust the weights of selected vertices by dragging the mouse up and down.
The weights are automatically normalized while adjusting, so you can preview what your mesh will look like.
Ever had to rig an elbow or knee? This tool makes it much easier to get that perfect skin folding result! You can precisely control the weight distribution on complicated areas under the influence of many bones like that.
Besides skinning with armatures, this tool is also useful for working with weights for things like hair density, physics goals, modifier influences etc.
All Blender versions above 2.80 are supported, including the latest release. Also included is a version for legacy Blender 2.79.
How to use:
- Select some vertices in the Weight Paint or Edit mode.
- Activate the tool with menu Weights > Adjust Vertex Weights (in Weight Paint mode) or from a hotkey that you set up (explained in a section below), or by pressing Space/F3 and searching for the name "Adjust Vertex Weights".
- Move the mouse up and down to offset the weights of selected vertices. If they're skinned you'll see them moving around as their weights are changed. The weights from locked vertex groups will stay the same.
- Hold Shift for finer changes, press Enter to accept the changes or press Esc to cancel.
Note: when in Weight Paint mode, make sure that the Vertex Selection Mask button is pressed so that you can see what vertices are selected and will be adjusted. As a safety precaution, the tool won't start unless this is on.
Recommended Workflow:
- Pose your mesh to find out where the skinning needs improvements.
- Select the vertices that you want to adjust.
- Lock all vertex groups (Vertex Group panel > dropdown menu > Lock All).
- Unlock only the vertex groups affecting the selected vertices*.
- Call Adjust Vertex Weights and change the weights to your liking.
* This step can be done a lot more easily by using a (free) add-on of mine, Popup Vertex Group List.
Keymap
You can manually add a keymap to this tool by following the Blender manual on this topic. The operator name is paint.adjust_vertex_weights to be added in the 3D View > Weight Paint and 3D View > Mesh category (the latter is so you can call it while in Edit mode).
You can also add that operator name to pie menus and custom panels as you wish.
Removal
To delete this add-on, find it in the Paint or User categories of your Add-on preferences, expand its info box and press the "Remove" button.