Thanks for the input! I actually didn't rig the arms in this example I just happened to add all the bones when I added the skin modifier and so the envelopes created happened to catch those vertices and the animation on the bones already included the arms moving. Believe it or not I don't really have any trouble rigging a…
A lot of experience can be gained in doing small projects, then add this experience up to make something grand. For a recent example - although not in modeling - I didn't know anything about Drupal (a content management system) but knew I wanted to make a very complex website. So I installed Drupal and just messed around…
http://www.hippydrome.com/ This would probably be helpful. All kinds of good info burried in those images. Weighting, pivot placement, range of motion, mine it for all its worth. I get the best deformation when joints are placed right down the center of whatever limb/torso with little regard to where actual anatomical…
Fixed. The bones aren't the problem... since they are used to pose and animate characters all the time with excellent results. Have you thought about using Biped or some other already made rig like CrypticAR or CAT to quickly rig and pose a character? There are quite a few free rigs floating around that would take the…