[Bf-funboard] Some skinning feature ideas

[Benjamin Tolputt]

Joe Eagar wrote:
> I have a python script, that displays (in a menu) all the bones that 
> are influencing a vert.  Maybe something like this should be 
> implemented in blender?
This would (in my opinion), be an inferior stop-gap measure. While 
useful (I'm not bagging the idea as it has merit), it is only a "per 
vertex" function. The issue remains that when weight painting (emphasis 
on the word "painting"), one can only see the weight for the current 
bone as a colour. As mentioned by Tony, it is most useful to have the 
colour shown reflect the "applied weight" of the selected bone. Given 
that the "applied weight" (i.e. normalized weight) of the bone on the 
vertex is what controls the deformation - it is much more intuitive to 
see it (and not the non-normalized weight).

The display & editing options as proposed by Tony (i.e. a "Display 
Normalized Values" toggle and an "Assign Absolute Weights" toggle) would 
enable both the current workflow (as possibly preferred by current 
Blenders) and the new (in my opinion "more intuitive") workflow to exist 
side by side and quite possibly complement each other.

Regards,
B.J.Tolputt