Zsphere rigging distorts mesh, even in lowest subdiv

[Dune]

First time using rigging with transpose master. It’s bird so there’s not much information about how to rig. Maybe the Zspheres are too big, or too small, not enough, too many?
The problem is that if I move one leg backwards the lower body distorts. I guess the polycount should even much smaller (am I right?), but that’s hard with the fine detail in the legs. So, perhaps have the legs as separate tools?

Another issue is that if I add extra Zspheres in symmetry, I sometimes get 2 spheres sort of overlapping. Then when rotating without symmetry, the body distorts. So how can I add Zspheres in symmetry mode without getting a double sphere? Or can I select one in non-symmetry mode and delete it? But how about the symmetry of the remaining? Can I reset that to center?

A lot of questions, so I hope anybody can give me some clues.

[Spyndel]

Hello @Dune ,

The mesh resolution is certainly one part of the problem. Meshes with that many points on the surface will perform poorly, distort much more easily and be more difficult to correct when they do distort.

Beyond that that weighting of the rigging is determined by the placement and distribution of the ZSpheres, so you may have to adjust those to get the falloff you want.

http://docs.pixologic.com/user-guide/3d-modeling/posing-your-model/rigging/

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When your mesh geometry is in a stable state and you are ready to begin posing, you should transition to a multi-resolution version of the mesh with a clean low poly base with evenly distributed quads. A mesh in this form will provide the best results for the purpose of the finest detail scultpting, painting, unwrapping for UV, posing, and texture export.

This is generally done by ZRemeshing or otherwise retopologizing a new low poly version of the mesh with quality topology, subdividing it sufficiently, and projecting the detail from the original version of the mesh onto the new one with one of the various methods.

[Dune]

Thanks very much for your explanation. The problem was that I started out with a fairly dense mesh, so I’ll start from scratch.
One more question; is there a way to avoid getting 2 overlapping Zspheres, say in the neck, when in symmetry mode? Or should I turn off symmetry before doing the single central Zspheres?