Hello,

I have been trying to rig a model for animation through Maya 2012 for motionbuilder. However, when I currently move its arms, part of the head goes with it. I then learned about Weight Painting and decided to follow tutorials on how to do it. I learn really fast, and know how to do it, but whenever I select the character (I have tried multiple ways, like selecting the root joint and selecting the mesh) and use the paint skin weights tool, it always gives me the error “//Error: No object matches name: Nameofrootjoint.liw”. Oftentimes, it shows the model covered in white, with a red x over the brush whenever I move it into an otherwise paintable area, although sometimes I get the model colored in pink. I have tried a bunch of tutorials and none have even mentioned this. I have exported and imported in Maya 2010 and 2011, but I have had no luck there either. I have also removed the attribute that locked weight editing to no avail. How can I fix this error?

Thanks in advance,
Nami

Select the mesh, and go to your paint skinweights tool.  Once you launch the tool, the mesh should turn black and white with greyscale colors all over.  1 is maximum influence (white) while 0 is minimum influence (black)