rigging question (hand)
 

Hi guys im trying to rig a hand, and to be honest have no experience in the area, i have the bones created, and have smooth bind them to the hand model, and have painted some weight maps for the joints for he index finger to start out, my problem is the when i rotate the finger in (as in clenching into a fist) the finger squishes flat (images attached) . any hints and tips to stop that? I know i can set up handles and set driven keys but i didnt think they would help with this problem.

thanks in advance if ya can help :)

Seems like your issue is the painted weights, if im not mistaken.

Are the joints located in the middle of the hand?

yea sorry i dont know how to show the joints without a wireframe render.
yes one joint in the middle of the hand for the palm then each finger has four joints starting at the knuckle.

Dont show a render but a screen cap.

*face Palm* like duh. lol

oke doke,
First thing is smooth your model so you get predictable results from textures and the rig. I would advise not using the smooth proxy preview as a final mesh/ to define large changes in shape, you can get some odd results. Use it to help you model more easily or to get smoother edges at render time.

When I rig, I set max influences to 1 as my initial bind, go into my paint weighting tool and make sure everything looks as it should (no joints controlling mesh it shouldn't) I then lock the weights on all the joints and increase the max influences up to 3-4 and then slowly unlock two - three at a time and smooth the results.

This is a quick explanation, if you need something more in depth just shout.

cool thanks i think i see what your saying, going to take some tinkering :) .
but at least i know i wasnt that far of the mark.

cheers