Paints Skin Weights Tool

I wasn't all too sure about how to use this tool at first but I kind of got it down now. This tool help you have better control over the way your model moves.

1) Have your model with a skeleton. If you need to add a skeleton ask your professor or go online and find out how to add one and come back. After you have your skeleton, select Skin, Bind Skin, and Smooth Bind. This allows your model to move like a human and not a robot. Now about the weights tool, first of all make sure your model is selected when you are trying to do the next step otherwise its not going to work.

2) Once you have your model selected click under the Animation tab and then double click on the 6th from the last tool. You will open up a tools settings box shown on the left side if the image below. 

3) Make sure the brush that you are using is the soft brush. This will make it so you don't make your model like a complete robot. Now let me explain what you see in the image below. You see where it says the parts of the body with those little pretty colored boxes on the left side? If you Select one of them, what you see on the model will happen. So, the one I'm showing you is the upper leg. You see that white? The whiter the part the more influence it has. The blacker the part means it has less influence. So you see that grey area means that it has little influence over those parts. If you move the upper leg, that part will move slightly.

4) So let me show you what had me messed up. Giving certain parts more or less influence. How to give less influence. Press Ctrl+left click. This will turn the white parts darker. But here is the tricky part, you have to make sure it's over one of the joints of the skeleton in order for it to actually make a change. It sounds harder than it looks. you'll understand once you try it.

 5) How to give more influence. This is easier, all you have to do if left click. But remember you have to be over a joint. Make sure to rotate your model as well to make sure there is no white or black on the back where there shouldn't be because it doesn't select/deselect the parts all the way around.

6) Remember you can do this to each part of the body so don't forget to do it to the other parts as well. Now go use the Move tool to move your parts around to see if you gave the right amount of influence to each part. Have fun =)