# Complexity of Mesh and Weight Painting

**URL:** <https://blenderartists.org/t/complexity-of-mesh-and-weight-painting/562487>\
**Category:** Animation and Rigging\
**Created:** [January 15, 2013, 11:58am UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/complexity-of-mesh-and-weight-painting/562487 "2013-01-15T11:58:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bfterrizzi](https://blenderartists.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/47e85d/32.png) [@bfterrizzi](https://blenderartists.org/u/bfterrizzi)\
**Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 11:58am UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/complexity-of-mesh-and-weight-painting/562487/1 "2013-01-15T11:58:27Z")

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Hi all,

I have been posting about a blend of a puppy that I am working on lately. I have a mesh that I downloaded and one that I sculpted from a basic cube. In the photo there is the puppy in profile.  
t therear isthe tail that I sculpted. I have joined the two meshes and while the main body is fairly easy to rig and animate, the tail is nearly to deform when there is a bone attached to it. I think that this is because of the amount of polygons that make up the shape having subdivided the cube so many times to make the tail smooth. I have tried to use weight paint but this almost freezes my computer when trying to do this…  
Is there a way that I can keep this tail and use weight paint. If not, what sculpting methods work best for rigging?  
Any help is appreciated. All the best,

B

 ![](https://blenderartists.org/uploads/default/original/3X/4/2/4269f625900599e445079880d4749d27c676812e.png)

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**Author:** ![kazinger](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/kazinger/32/12326_2.png) [@kazinger](https://blenderartists.org/u/kazinger)\
**Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 6:26pm UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/complexity-of-mesh-and-weight-painting/562487/2 "2013-01-15T18:26:22Z")

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Ya …loose the tail. extrude the face on the butt. search basic modeling tutorial for Blender. Auto weights should work fine for this model.

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**Author:** ![anon97562581](https://blenderartists.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/b3f665/32.png) [@anon97562581](https://blenderartists.org/u/anon97562581)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2013, 4:11am UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/complexity-of-mesh-and-weight-painting/562487/3 "2013-01-16T04:11:40Z")

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That’s a whole lot of verts in the tail there. You’d be better off re-doing that with a much lower poly count and setting the shading to smooth in the tool panel (T), then using something like the mesh deform modifier mixed with an armature if you still want to use the bones on the base mesh. There’s a tutorial on my channel about the mesh deform modifier if it’s of any use to you.  
Good luck 🙂