I have a mesh attached to an armature using an armature constraint. I’ve got it vertex painted and rigged so that it works fine in pose mode. If I move it around in pose mode, the mesh follows, but of course the centers of all the objects stay in their original positions.
Shouldn’t I be able to move the armature object in object mode and have the mesh follow? That’s not happening. Instead I’m getting some strange distortion, as if part of the mesh wanted to follow, but not all of it. Do I need to parent it explicitly in addition to using the armature constraint? I thought the armature constraint was a replacement for the parent relationship.
I think you have enabled deformation by both Vertex Groups and Envelopes in modifier stack. But since you have the model completely weight painted, the envelopes create distorsion of our weights.
Edit:
Also check if your model and your armature have the same origin, rotation, scale.
One more edit:
I just found out, that all my models, that behave this way, have really the armature as parent object of the mesh :-)).
ondrew answered your question, but to clarify: The purpose of the armature modifier is only to deform the mesh. To make the mesh object follow the armature object, you need to use parenting in addition to the armature modifier.
When you create the parent/child relationship you will be prompted “Make Parent To” and given the choices “Armature” and “Object”. If you are using an armature modifier, then choose “Object” from the “Make Parent To” prompt.