One, two, three, four... issues with one rock

Archive Usability
1

I made this simplistic example to demonstrate some of the issues I encountered with weight pain …err… weight paint.

I have a vertex group named after the bone name.
I change to weight mode and choose a brush to partially erase the automatic weights.

Usability issue 1: There is no “clear weights” button. I have to wipe out the mesh linearly, like when I’m doing the floor of my room. A simple tiny button is crying to be born along with the option to clear all, or only the weights of the selected vertex group.

I choose a brush.

Usability issue 2: What “Alpha” has to do with weight-paint??? Most of these brushes are completely irrelevant to weight paint, therefore redundant and confusing.
Most users use just “Add” or “Subtract”.
I often do not need to add or sub, I need to set a specific value, so set should also be available in weight-paint mode to minimize head scratching.

Usability issue 3: The vertex group is ignored in weight paint. I need it to set different zones, one beside the other and to limit gradient weight paint to a specific region.

Usability issue 4: The vertex group is destroyed or altered after weight painting.

With all these issues, I cannot use weight paint at all for my task and I have to think of alternative, time consuming ways.

weight_pain
weight_pain832×580 1.89 MB

2

Issue 3

Issue 1

  • There is “Clear Active Group”, in the special menu of the Vertex Groups panel.
  • There is “Clear” (with limit) in Weights menu.
  • You can “Remove” or set zero weight to selected vertices (in the Vertex Groups panel).

Issue 4

  • Weights that’s what vertex group are.

Issue 2

  • The “Assign” weight available with “Vertex Selection” mode.
  • What I agree with is that the “Alpha” and “HSV” blending modes don’t work in Weight Paint. There is no color or alpha information. All other modes are very useful if you learn how they work.