3dsmax - Cat Rig - Am I not supposed to skin the body mesh to the ribcage?

sr3d

I don't understand the ribcage when it comes to skinning.

Am I supposed to skin to the ribcage, spine3 and spine4 OR do I just leave the ribcage out of the skinning and just use it as a controller? I've been trying to find documentation on this, but having trouble. I will update this post if I figure it out.

sr3d

I've come to the conclusion that you are not supposed to skin the ribcage.  Instead you skin to your spine1,spine2,spine3 bones then use the ribcage as a controller only.

Often times your ribcage will take up the same space as your top most spine bone, so there is no point in skinning both to your top spine bone and your ribcage.   If you have a spine4 bone, then maybe it would make sense, but I'm not experienced enough yet to know for sure.

Could anyone confirm this or challenge my argument please?