• Parenting the Armature and Mesh using the Automatic Weights tool
• Assigning Weight Groups by hand
• Editing Weight Groups using the Weight Paint tool
• Using the Mesh Deform modifier to skin the character
• Using the Laplacian Deform modifier and Hooks

In the previous chapter, we saw the rigging stage, that is, how to build the character's rig (which in Blender is called an Armature) that will be used to deform the mesh for animations. In this chapter, instead, we are going to see quicker and more effective ways to do the skinning that is a necessary step to bind the bones of the Armature to the mesh's vertices so that they can be deformed.

To allow an Armature to deform a Mesh, they must be parented with some kind of relation; in Blender, usually you must select the Mesh and then Shift select the Armature and press Ctrl + P to parent them with different options.

This automatically makes the Mesh object a child of the Armature object and assigns the Armature modifier to the Mesh. In fact, the parenting would not be strictly necessary; it would be enough to assign an Armature modifier to the mesh and manually select the rig as a deforming object, but it's a good habit to use the Ctrl + P parenting to have the rig as a parent of the mesh, also in Object Mode. This way, whenever you move the Armature in Object Mode, the mesh will follow it automatically.

For the examples in these recipes, to skin the Armature to the Gidiosaurus mesh, we are going to use the final version of the rig we have built with our hands: the one saved as Gidiosaurus_rig_from_scratch_02.blend.

Anyway, if you want to put this to practice, in this chapter, with a more complex and complete Rigify armature (Gidiosaurus_rigify_02.blend), the procedure is exactly the same. In this case, even if not strictly necessary, remember that you can enable the 30th Armature layer (in total there are 32) to show the deforming bones; instead, disable the visibility of all the other bone layers also by the Python button interface in the Rig Layers subpanel under the 3D window Properties side panel:

The Rig Layers panel in the N Properties sidepanel and the Armature bone layers button in the Skeleton subpanel under the main Properties panel

Remember to check in your User Preferences panel (press Ctrl + Alt + U to call it) if you have, under the File tab, the Auto Run Python Scripts item enabled; otherwise, the rig based on Python scripts or expressions (like the rigs obtained through the Rigify add-on) won't work properly.

In this case, Blender will warn you through an Auto-run disabled message visible in the top main header; it's enough to click the Reload Trusted button to the right and then confirm by clicking on the Revert item in the pop-up menu that appears, to reload the .blend file with the scripts enabled and to have everything working as expected:

To the left, you can see several bones apparently missing in the rig because it is wrongly oriented, and the "Auto-run disabled" warning in the top main header; to the right, you can see the restored rig