[3ds Max] Issue with deforming

Enydimon

So I'm in the process of learning how to rig, and it seems like the torso and the legs/feet of my model are working just fine, but I'm having issues with the arm.





I understand the elbow probably needs a triangle in there to deform right, but I thought it might be worth pointing out just in case.

I did try lowering the arms to a 45 degree angle, but the same issue came up. It is quite possible I'm missing something really obvious, I still have a lot to learn.

If it's not poor rigging I'm thinking it might be bad geometry? I have no idea what to do, though.

claydough

Have you visited the wiki?
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/ShoulderTopology
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Limb_Topology
also shoulders from Japan might be helpful:
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?p=828880#post828880
and Hippydrome
http://www.hippydrome.com/

Enydimon

That's what I get for spacing out my time working on this too far apart. I completely forgot about the wiki, thanks!

I'll hit that up tomorrow and hopefully I can get something working right.

Eric Chadwick

The topology isn't too bad. Those wiki pages will help if you want to improve.

But the biggest issue I see is just your weighting. You need to adjust the bone weights carefully in those areas to get good deformations. Default weights are never going to be enough.

A good workflow is to adjust the Skin envelopes first, get a rough weighting. Then select loops and adjust their weights and bone assignments. Then get into the vertex-by-vertex weighting. Some people like painting the weights.

http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Rigging
The last tutorial here is really good. It's for Maya but the workflow concepts are universal.