Difference between armature modifier and parenting bone to mesh?

Support Animation and Rigging
1

I just wanted to know :smiley:

Thanks

2

I’m pretty sure (and gods of Blender badassness please smite me in thy mercy if I’m wrong so that I might learn) that the one is a subset of the other. To wit:

When you parent a mesh to an armature, it does the following:

1: Makes the mesh a subset of the armature, so that moving the armature in object mode moves the mesh.

2: If you select “generate vertex groups,” it generates vertex groups and does so reasonably well.

3: It adds an armature modifier to the mesh.

The armature modifier is the part of all this that deforms the mesh when the bones move. You can add this separately, but I don’t know how to automatically generate the vertex groups, so I usually parent instead.