Setting Up Models

Before you start working on the skinning, you may want to set up your model to help you navigate your scene and make the skinning process easier:

Go through the objects in the model and apply every Mirror and Shrinkwrap modifier. Not applying them at this stage might lead to issues later when we start weight-painting.

When you apply the Mirror modifier, some objects will need to be separated, such as the details in the arms and gloves or in the boots, so each side is a separate object. In Edit Mode, select the faces on one of the sides and press P to separate the current selection into a different object.

Apply the location, rotation, and scale of every mesh (not the lattices of the eyes, in case you scaled them when you made the deformations) using Ctrl + A. This will prevent problems when you link all the objects of the character to the skeleton because if you’ve scaled the objects before, you may find issues later (objects jumping around or rescaling when you parent them). When you apply the transforms, keep in mind that some things might go wrong. If an object becomes darkened or looks weird, go into Edit Mode, select everything, and press Ctrl + N to reset the normals. Another problem that can arise is that the objects using modifiers such as Solidify might have to be revised because their thickness depends directly on their scale, so when you apply the scale, the thickness value might be affected.

The eyebrows should be a part of the face model so they’re easier to adjust later when you create facial expressions. You can move them together with the face vertices using the Proportional Editing tool. When joining them to the face (using Ctrl + J), you’ll end up with a single mesh in which the eyebrows will have a different material applied to them.

Name every model (if you haven’t already) so you can recognize the objects in it just by their names. This will be useful at this stage and all the stages to follow.