Model Rigging - Continued

Using the Zombie model, I have continued to rig.

Knee weighting. I have to make a smooth transition between the back of the knee and the calf. I could kind of get away with some errors because of the way the knee bends, it covers a large portion of the mesh/leg. I got it as close to real as I could, however.

The next step in correcting the weighting was the thigh. Blending the two portions of legs helps to give a smooth transition. There was a portion of knee which hung low, as can be seen above.

To correct the knee, I blended a little more on a lower set of  vertices.

This fixed the knee problem. 

I altered the weighting on the bottom of the leg, so the foot wouldn't affect the cuff of the trousers so much. It gives a slight movement, which would happen in real life. Give it a shot, go on! Rotate your foot and watch your cuffs. (Don't bother if naked or wearing shorts)

To make the mesh symmetrical, I cloned the mesh. This one was named zombie_proxy, so I know which the make the edits to.

I used the Symmetry to make "fix" the mesh. It has removed the untucked shirt portion. This will be added at a later date.

I enabled Mirror Mode so I could copy the data across to the opposing limbs.

To rig the hips, I select the full area and give it a weight Value of 100%, so I know which areas I am working with.

Since the hips and thighs will affect each other I go back to the thigh and blend with the hips.

The side of the hips and the bum of the model began to get infuriating. I had to edit so much of  it to make it work properly. To remove the stretching I had to use a lot of low values. There was a margin of error which I could use, as when the thigh raises to 90 degrees, the skin folds on the top of the thigh slightly. This allows a slight margin of error which I can work with.

I mirror the mesh again, but there are some slight changes which need to be made as they have not mirrored exactly.

Altering the Mirror Threshold I can get the sides to match up properly. I have highlighted the area which needed to be changed.

In the end, I get a set of hips with equal weighting.

When weighting the mesh, I found it to be a strange process. When editing two areas at once, it can seem like swimming against the current, but then, all of a sudden, it clicks right into place. Once I managed to get my head around it, I found it a pretty simple process.