rigging/skinning in max with UT3 example

travisdreams

I need urgent help D; i downloaded the UT3 Male rig with bones and a biped bone but im trying to put my own 3d mesh and use their rig to skin onto my mesh.

(can be downloaded here)
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UDKCustomCharacters.html

i remove the bones like b_rightthumb b_spine, etc , because i plan to use the biped rig.

so i add a skin to my mesh and add the bones, but i either cant paint the weights, or if i select it by vertices and using the abs effect option, it seems like it removes it when i take it to 0, but then when i go to like the opposite leg bone, and back to the original leg bone i edited the weights with, the weight is still there....ahhh ive been going at this rig for like 3 hours already D;

i heard there was some check box for something like "hold weights" but i cant find that to try it out.

any ideas?

travisdreams

okay i found out why i couldnt paint the weights using the painter option, which was because my max strength was at 0. but even if i put it to 1, and remove the weight, when i go to the opposing bone again and return back to the first one, the weight returns again like nothing happened