Weight Values

Sometimes weight painting, even though it’s very fast and easy, can be tricky. In complex parts of the model or in areas where you need very specific weights, it’s better to add values numerically and, fortunately, Blender allows you to do this.

In the Vertex Groups panel on the Mesh tab (the tab with a little triangle and its vertices) in the Properties Editor, there are options for adding values. Just follow these instructions:

1. In Edit Mode, select the vertices you want to weight precisely.

2. Go to the Vertex Groups panel, find the group with the name of the bone to which you want to add the weight, and left click to select it. If you click the little button at the bottom of the list (you can find this button in every list in Blender), you’ll be able to filter and search groups by their names, so just start typing the name of the group and press Enter to display only the groups with a name that matches your input (another reason why naming stuff properly is useful).

3. Under the Vertex Groups list there are a few options that are very similar to those you saw in the Bone Groups panel. Set the weight value and click Assign. This will set that weight on the selected vertices for the selected bone/vertex group.

There’s even another way in which you can adjust vertex weights. In Edit Mode, select one or more vertices and, if they have weights assigned, a Vertex Weights panel will appear in the Properties Region. In it, you’ll be able to adjust the weight values for each vertex group, as well as copy weights from one vertex and paste them to another.