Posing armature causes mesh to stretch

Question

I've gone through multiple different 'fixes' trying to get these shoes to not stretch like this when my model is posed, but I've had no luck. It's parented to the armature, the weights have been set like everything else on the model, I've tried applying scale via shift+A > Scale, but no matter what I do, the mesh ends up like this. It doesn't happen to any other part of the model.

There's no feet on the model that could be causing problems. The laces on our right are actually attached to the shoe model whereas on the left they aren't. I can't really think of much else I can do - it's probably a simple solution but unfortunately I'm rather new to using blender and can't figure it out. Anyone know how to fix this?

Answer 1

It looks like some vertices are getting left without any vertex weight influence. While in Edit Mode, select one single instance of any of these straggling vertices and check the Properties Shelf (to the right of the 3D View) for the Item Tab, which brings up the Transform Panel. Then look to the area beneath the Transform Panel for the Vertex Weights section. For any vertex that is selected, you will be shown all the vertex groups that the currently selected vertex is currently part of, as well as the vertex weighting assigned to each of the listed vertex groups. If you don't see any Vertex Weight section at all, it means the selected vertex is not part of any vertex group, and that would be your problem. Assign them by navigating to the Object Data tab in the Properties Panel, then look for the Vertex Groups Section, where you can assign, remove, and adjust the influence (weight) of the currently selected vertices.