Hi Lori,

You probably found a solution already by now but thought I would give you my thoughts incase you havent solved this issue.

The way you would get a smooth skin effect with rigid binding is to use something called "indirect binding" where instead of using the joints to drive the skin you use the joints to drive a lattice for example where you need better control....that way you can have smooth skin effect on parts that need it while using a rigid bind.