Armature is not modifying the mesh

Question

I am trying to create a robotic hand, for the fingers I add an armature then parent the finger to the bones. Then when I go to pose mode instead of modifying the mesh it pivots the finger on that joint. I have done about 7 tutorials on armature and have all gotten me nowhere unlike other characteristics of blender like editing, painting, using nodes, etc... seem to be more developed and easier to use unlike the armature option. I have been using blender for 2 years now and have never seen a feature more vague and underdeveloped than armature. Maybe it's just that I'm bad at it, but watching 4 hours worth of tutorials on it and getting nowhere really frustrates me.

Answer 1

In the first screenshot, it appears that your mesh has no vertex groups. As far as I am aware, skinning requires that the mesh has vertex groups with the same names as the bones in the armature, and cannot work otherwise. The vertices you want to be moved by a certain bone must be assigned to the matching vertex group. To add vertex groups to your mesh, click on the + button on the vertex groups panel (visible on the right side of your first screenshot). You can also automatically create the vertex groups by selecting the mesh, then shift selecting the armature, then hitting Ctrl + P and selecting Armature Deform with either Empty Groups, Envelope Weights, or Automatic Weights.