BIG painting weight tools problem
 

I bind skin in maya 6. but i go to paint weight tools and adjust and once i start the joints have no affect on my model. i'm doing exactly what the tutorial is showing me. i already did the finished the head and i am doing the same thing with the rest of the body and i take the first click of the mouse in adjusting the weights the joints have no affect on the model. i am so lost can someone please help. i so would appreciate it.

does ur model turn black and white?
also what setting do u have ur tool on theres four choices
add, smooth, replace and something else
mayb u got the wrong 1 from mem i think it should be on replace but i might be wrong

it does turn black and white. i put it on replace when i have the value on 0. and add when i put the value at 1. after i bind the skin to the joints i choose the joint from the tools and take my first click on the model and once i try to see how the model reacts to the adjustment the skeleton moves but the model doesn't. and i do check that the model moves with the joints once i bind the skin. and on top of the fact that my model detaches itself fom joints once i click on it using the paint weight tool i've been noticing that if i choose a joint then paint to adjust then choose another joint and go back to the first joint. the weights got back to what they were originally however the joints are unable to move the model. i really don't understand what i am doing wrong.

i still don't know why. i took my model and i redid my skeleton from scratch. made an adjustment to how the arms are parented to the spine joints because my character has 4 arms not just 2. but i use the same settings as in the tutorial. i bind skin and the joint moves the mesh but not the way it should. like the upper arm sleeve area moves but not entirely when i rotate the upper shoulder joint. some of the influence is attached to the lower arm shoulder joint so i try to make the adjustment but once i click to adjust the weights the skeleton once again looses influence on the model. basically it detaches it self. then i choose the lower arm shoulder joint and back to the upper arm shoulder joint and i see the influences have gone back to default and still none of the model will move to the rotation of the joint. and if i try to bind skin again at this point it tells me its already binded to a skin cluster. i have to detach to bind again. this is weird. so should i use different settings in the bind skin tool options. and what does drop off mean in the options panel. pleeease someone help. i have no problem with the head area but once i hit the chest area that includes the sleeves the tool doesn't seem to work properly. i really want to et this done and animate it soon.