Why is Maya randomly assigning weights to bones?

[kathal-2]

Hey! An issue I frequently encounter when painting skin weights is that I'll completely remove the weights from a joint end, but Maya will (very lightly) either reassign those weights to that joint or assign them elsewhere.

Another recent example: I was attempting to have an eye bone control only a character's eye (by flooding with the paint skin weights tool), but Maya kept assigning weights to the nose as well.

How can I prevent this?

[stephenkmann]

check if you have "maintain max influences" turned on .

this will try and maintain distribution of skin weights to a # of influences.

Often this means it will always spread the weight 

-=s

[kathal-2]

Looks like it was enabled in the Bind Skin Options! Is there a way to disable it after I've already painted most of my weights?

[stephenkmann · Accepted solution]

yes, select the skinCluster. 

open the attribute editor.

and you can turn it off there

hth

-=s