Rigging & animation · Intermediate
Weight painting
Brushing on a mesh to set how strongly each bone moves each area
What is weight painting?
Weight painting is brushing directly on a mesh to set how strongly each bone moves each part of the surface. Colors show the strength, usually blue for none and red for full. It is how riggers fix the pinches and stretches that automatic skinning leaves behind.
Think of it like this
Like brushing glue inside a loose glove: where you paint thickly it sticks firmly to that finger, and where you skip it slides free.
Where it fits in a 3D project
- Create
- Surface
- Rig
- Animate
- Render
- Export
Rig: Adding a skeleton and controls so the model can move.
How weight painting works
- 01Select a bone, and the mesh shows that bone’s weights as colors.
- 02Paint to add influence, or subtract and blur to reduce and soften it.
- 03Pose the bone to see how the surface now bends.
- 04Repeat bone by bone until every joint folds cleanly.
Weight painting vs automatic weights
| Property | Weight painting | Automatic weights |
|---|---|---|
| How | Painted by hand, bone by bone | Calculated from bone distance |
| Speed | Slow | Instant |
| Quality | As good as your eye | A fair start, often messy at joints |
Start with automatic weights, then weight paint the joints and faces that still bend badly.
Where weight painting is used
- Fixing pinched elbows, knees and armpits
- Keeping rigid parts, like a helmet, from bending
- Soft, gradual falloff on bellies, cheeks and shoulders
Terms related to weight painting
- Rigging & animationSkinningAttaching a mesh to its skeleton so the surface bends with the bones
- Rigging & animationBoneOne rigid piece of a 3D skeleton that moves the mesh around it
- Rigging & animationSkeletonThe full set of linked bones that decides how a 3D model can bend
- ModelingVertexA single point in 3D space; the corners every mesh is built on
- Rigging & animationRiggingGiving a model a skeleton and controls so it can be posed
- Rigging & animationAuto-riggingSoftware that fits a skeleton and skin weights to a character for you
Weight painting FAQ
How do you weight paint in Blender?
Parent the mesh to an armature with automatic weights, select the mesh and switch to Weight Paint mode. Pick a bone’s vertex group, then paint. Posing the bone while you work shows the result as you go.
What do the colors mean in weight painting?
They show influence. Blue means the bone does not move that area, green and yellow are partial, and red is full control. Most 3D apps use this blue to red scale.
Why does my character stretch when it moves?
Some vertices have little or no weight, so they stay behind while the bones move. Find them in weight paint view, add weight from the nearest bone, and normalize so every vertex is fully covered.
Updated October 29, 2026 · Browse all 3D terms