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So I know how to weight-paint from a TECHNICAL perspective, but not an ARTISTIC perspective. That is, I know how to access weight-paint mode, I know about the brushes, how to select bones, etc. The problem is that I don't know which areas should be less or more heavily weighted for which bones, in order to make the end result look good.

Google doesn't seem to help, as searching simple queries like "blender weight painting tutorial" only seem to cover the TECHNICAL perspective, which I already understand. Granted, this seems to be the case for not just weight-painting, but rigging, animation, character modeling, and other things. Because of all this, I have a hard time as-is trying to find information on the subject.

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  • $\begingroup$ Every mesh and rig is unique, but something that I find helpful is to test the effect of the weight as I paint, by selecting bones in Weight Paint mode and doing free rotation on them (press [R][R]) to see how they move, then pressing [Esc] to cancel once I've seen it. If something's not right I paint a little more, then test again. And repeat. $\endgroup$ – Mentalist Mar 6 '17 at 18:31
  • $\begingroup$ I don't think there is a real artistic perspective in weight painting. The result will mainly depend on the mesh itself (good geometry/edges so that it can be bent as wanted, depending on the bone positions and rotations limits). The mesh is done following concept art or model. It is eventually retopo in order to fit the wanted animation (good geometry as said above), the armature is placed accordingly, and weight paint is done automatically and/or adjusted manually to fit the needs.But in my (non professional) experience, this is more a patient tuning than artistic matter. $\endgroup$ – lemon Mar 6 '17 at 18:41
  • $\begingroup$ ... but (as previous comment is too long)... surely some are genius/artist at doing it better than others... $\endgroup$ – lemon Mar 6 '17 at 18:45

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