Posing >
Troubleshoot posing

The following table lists common problems related to posing and possible solutions:

Problem/Error Message | Possible Solution
--- | ---
Rotating a model component at a joint causes the component to either collapse or bulge in an undesirable way. | This indicates that the region of influence needs to be adjusted on the joint. While Mudbox sets the pivot location automatically when you create a joint, it may need to be modified using either the Weights tool or Move Pivot tool so the affected areas appear more natural. See Adjust a joint's region of influence and Adjust a joint's pivot location. You can also use the Sculpt tools to quickly perform fine adjustments and corrections. This can be quicker than adjusting the weights, provided your model component deformation is close enough. For example, the Smooth tool can quickly correct unwanted bulges, and so on.
More of the model deforms on the opposite side of the joint than I expect. | The weighting is symmetrical by default on either side of the joint. If you drag the Weight Vector quite far from the joint when creating it, the default region of influence might be larger than you expect. Either recreate the joint with a more abrupt falloff, or adjust the weight color. Another cause for unbalanced deformation on the joint might be the unsymmetrical falloff curve that was active when the joint was initially created. Recreate the joint using a different falloff curve setting or adjust the weighting. See Adjust a joint's region of influence.
Some vertices move unexpectedly when the model is posed. | Check the weight values in those areas in relation to the joint. If they have weight color, they can be affected when the joint is posed. Temporarily assign a darker material color to the model to contrast with the weight color, helping you identify areas with incorrect weighting. See Adjust a joint's region of influence.
Joint positions do not match the imported model’s current position when the model is imported to Mudbox. | In some situations, the model must be placed in its bind pose before being exported as an FBX file. Once imported, you can pose the joints and adjust weight settings in Mudbox.
Joint weighting does not appear to blend smoothly when a model with joints is imported and posed in Mudbox. | Mudbox only supports four joints influencing a given vertex (the four strongest joints) when importing a model with existing joints from another application. The influence of remaining joints is ignored, which can result in un-smooth joint transitions when posing. To help compensate for this, the weighting for imported joints can be smoothed on import by turning on the Smooth Joint Weights preference (Windows > Preferences > FBX > Smooth Joint Weights). See the FBX import preferences.
A separate model component that was parented into the skeleton hierarchy in Maya is not transforming along with other models when imported and posed in Mudbox. | Models with meshes parented into the joint hierarchy are not supported by Mudbox. To compensate for this, you can fully weight the mesh to its original parent joint in Mudbox.
After importing a model with an existing skeleton hierarchy from another application, some areas of the model are invisible when using the Pose tools. | Portions of a mesh may not display in the 3D View if the number of joints exceeds a specified amount. This limitation only affects the mesh when using the Pose tools, and is not apparent when sculpting or painting. The mesh can still be posed but you’ll need to select either a paint or sculpt tool to view the entire mesh. The maximum number of joints a mesh can have before display limitations occur depends on your graphics card: NVidia: 256 joints; ATI: 75 joints.