Having a bit of trouble...

[Smashed Pumpkin]

Hi there, I'm new here and I signed up primarily to try and solve the problem I'm having.

Thinking about this it is probably actually more of a maya issue but perhaps the origin of my problem stems from the actual modeling in zbrush. I'm trying to find a way to effectively animate a model of a four legged creature. I have tried a few things out with maya but the issue I'm having is that when I bind the skin to the rig and then try and animate it, parts of the model that I don't want to distort are moved with (for example) the leg. On some occasions I have had parts of the creatures side and ribcage distort with the upper leg when I rotate it down.

I'm a complete and utter novice to 3d animation and modeling. I'm wondering if it's to do with the pose my model is in when I first rig it and so should I maybe have all the creatures legs streched out as though extended?

I appreciate that this probably sounds very confusing as I don't really know what I'm talking about but any help would be much appreciated.

[Intervain]

well the issue is with weighting - it's the hardest part in rigging characters - you have to assign points on your mesh to particular bones so they only move with those bones... it's simple for a straightforward character but it can get very complicating. You'd need to read more about rigging in Maya to solve your problem.

[ISK-86]

Skin weights

In maya, press F1

[Smashed Pumpkin]

Thanks a lot guys, I've had a fiddle and started to get the feel of weighting the skin so that it works. I some times find it really difficult to get a smooth transition from one joint to the next and end up getting jaggered edges on the next joint when smoothing the white on the previous. I assume this just comes with practice though.

[ISK-86]

Just remember to NEVER remove weights from joints, always add weight to another