What are the steps to skin a weight painting 3D model for beginners?

For beginners, skinning a weight-painted 3D model involves 4 core steps: rigging (adding a skeleton), binding the model to the rig, painting weights to assign bone influence, and testing/refining to fix artifacts. Rigging: Build an armature (e.g., character bones) that matches the model’s shape—this is the “skeleton” that will move the model. Binding: Use tools like Blender’s “Automatic Weights” to link the model’s vertices to bones automatically—this gives a quick starting point. Weight Painting: Use a brush to adjust influence: white means a vertex moves fully with a bone, black means no movement, grays are partial. Focus on joints (elbows, knees) where stretching happens. Testing/Refining: Move bones (e.g., bend an arm) to spot issues like stretching or distortion. Repaint weights to fix these. For beginners, start with simple low-poly models (e.g., a cube character) and rely on automatic weights first—don’t paint from scratch. Test poses often to catch problems early.