The most handy trick ever

This is the most hand trick ever for weight painting. Doug discovered it while showing me something the other day and I kept forgetting how to use it even though it is so mighty handy so I asked Doug to word it for me and I though I would post it here so I can keep coming back to it and don't ever forget it again so here it is.


Select the armature, then go into POSE MODE.

While it pose mode, select the X-Ray tab in the tools so that the skeleton will be visible in the weight paint mode.

WHILE IN POSE MODE, right click the mesh so that it is selected.

This will now show you to be in Object mode, scroll this up to Weight pain mode.

You should now be able to right-click on individual bones, and paint on them as needed.

While in this mode, you can also hit the F key, that will display the mesh (and vertices) which makes it a little easier to paint. But, if you go into that viewing mode, you also have to select the mesh you want active to receive weight paint. You do not need to use this F key mode in weight paint, but I found it valuable.



Remember, you must go into the weight paint mode exactly following the steps above. If you simply select the mesh and go straight to it (without going into the pose mode with the armature selected first) you will not be able to select the individual bones.