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.