In 3DS Max, you can, while inside pose mode [3ds max doesn’t have a pose mode but I use this term to help Blender users understand what I am saying better], you can select the vertex and adjust the weight in real time by typing in the weight for a specific bone and SEE the vertex repositioning itself in real time to see how it deforms for that pose. This is wonderful.
In Blender, I am unable to assign weight to a single vertex WITH the pose intact.
What do I mean ?
The only way to “see” the effect while changing the weight of a vertex is to go into weight paint mode, there I am presented with a brush to brush over the vertex.
What if I want to select a SINGLE point and manually adjust it while seeing the effect in that pose by moving the Weight slider to see the vertex repositioning itself in real time ?
The only way is to go into edit mode so that you can select a single point and it is only through there you can set the weight and click “assign”, but the problem is while you are in edit mode the mesh pops back into the default position.
Can I get the mesh to stay in the pose position while in edit mode so that I can manually adjust each vertex manually ?
Just have a look at those little icons decorating all the modifier tabs. Usually there are four of them, one to enable the modifier at render time, one in the viewport, one to display a ghost of modified mesh in edit mode, and last but not least one to enable it in edit mode.
So yes, you can get the mesh to stay in pose while in edit mode.
I personally don’t rig or animate in Blender…there is a lovely dedicated animation program called akeytsu and you can rig and animate your charectersthere and then port them into blender Highly reccomend it and the workflow …
the tutorials on the akeytsu website are good enough to get you up and running, that said I found them a little lacking in a few places so had to figure out a few things myself…however still a awesome program designed for traditional animators… I will be making a tutorial covering the export import into blender workflow and how I animate charecters using the tool… so if you do decide to use it, check out my youtube channel I will post a update on this forum as well when the tutorial is ready… https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzInoYzuxMcdI3yzIkYQEHg
