Fix the bad weights. Keep the rig.

Automatic Weights left a paw, hip, wing, or tail collapsing? Send the pose that exposes it. A reviewed repair targets the suspicious region on a copy while preserving your armature, topology, UVs, and good weights.

Can this rig be repaired? Download free analyzer

Your outcome: the repaired file, only if the reviewed result is usable. Describe the failure first; the file link is optional. Private. No payment now. $29 only if you choose the result. Watch the fox proof.

Controlled fox rig with injected bad weights tearing its back Bad weights
The same fox rig and pose after a focused weight repair Focused repair
Controlled sample: same mesh, armature, and pose. The failure was deliberately injected; arbitrary production rigs are not guaranteed.

One wrong foot bone. 34 bad vertices.
Found in Blender.

A real Blender capture: run Scan Weights, inspect the flagged foot-bone influence and heatmap, select all 34 affected vertices, then watch the same run cycle after those weights are corrected. The free analyzer diagnoses and selects; it does not change weights.

Controlled Khronos fox demo. Model/mesh by PixelMannen (CC0 1.0); rigging and animation by tomkranis (CC BY 4.0); glTF conversion by AsoboStudio and scurest (CC BY 4.0). SkinSmart deliberately changed weights and, where applicable, materials/subdivision, framing, overlays, and editing. Source and license details.

Have a rig that fails like this? Submit the file and the pose or animation frame that makes the problem visible. If SkinSmart produces a usable candidate that passes private review, you decide whether the repaired file is worth $29.

Request a private repair review

A controlled demo.
Drag the line.

This shows a repeatable result on one deliberately damaged sample rig. It is not a guarantee for arbitrary production files.

Fox rig mid-run with a huge blade of geometry torn upward out of its back The same fox after SkinSmart's repair, running cleanly
Blender auto weights After SkinSmart
153mesh collisions, broken, mid stride
77after Repair All (undamaged fox: 72)

The fox is a Khronos sample rig, deliberately damaged for demonstration: a hind-foot bone hijacked 430 vertices of the back. SkinSmart found the injected fault and repaired it to within a few collisions of the undamaged original. Unretouched renders.

Diagnosis first. Repair only after review.

1

Scan FREE BETA

The validation analyzer checks organic meshes driven by armature weights. Every flagged region reports the metric that tripped and why.

influence bleed dead or partial weights mushy joints broken symmetry influence overflow rig setup traps clothing that won't follow
2

Review

You stay in charge. Adjust sensitivity, dismiss intentional weighting, inspect each region in the viewport. Read-only until you say otherwise.

3

Test a candidate

The pilot can attempt a local re-solve of flagged weights. A result stays in review unless it clears the current quality gates.

A SkinSmart development panel in Blender showing a ranked issue list, experimental repair controls, and a heatmap-painted fox in the viewport
The development panel in Blender. The ranked analyzer and heatmap are in the free beta; the repair controls shown here remain pilot-only.

Controlled injuries, reproducible results.

Fox rig mid-run with a dead lower foreleg smearing into a spike The same fox repaired, running cleanly
Broken Repaired

A dead lower foreleg: 472 vertices with no weights at all, smearing mid-stride. Diagnosed with no hints and re-solved in one click.

Fox rig mid-run with a broken ridge erupting along its back The same fox repaired, running cleanly
Broken Repaired

A tail bone that quietly owns 165 vertices of the back: the ridge erupts as soon as the spine bends. Found and re-solved in one click.

Every scenario is a fresh randomized injury to the same Khronos fox: damaged by script, diagnosed with no hints, repaired with the one-click fix. Renders are unretouched.

Forum research found recurring weight-related failures across 200 recent help posts. On one downloaded wild quadruped, the repair recovered 83% of a dead-weight region and declined regions without safe anchors. These cases guide the beta; they do not prove repair quality on arbitrary rigs.

Designed around production constraints.

  • Topology is sacred. Never remeshes, never re-parents, never touches UVs or edge flow.
  • Non-humanoid first. Quadrupeds, wings, tails. The rigs Mixamo and AccuRig turn away.
  • Analyzer stays local. The free analyzer reads vertex-group weights in Blender. The repair pilot requires a private file submission.
  • Narrow beta scope. Mechanical rigs, drivers, shape-key systems, and Geometry Nodes deformation are outside the public pilot.
Wireframe close-up of a repaired shoulder junction, edge flow intact
The proof riggers ask for: identical wireframe before and after. Only the weights change.

Request a private repair review.

Not sure whether the weights can be fixed without starting over? Describe the broken pose now; the file link is optional. SkinSmart works from a copy and tests a focused repair without replacing the rest of your good weight work.

Send the rig and failed pose

The first reviewed cohort is capped at 10 suitable non-humanoid rigs. If a usable repair candidate passes review, SkinSmart emails you before any purchase decision. You choose whether to buy the repaired .blend for $29. If nothing usable passes, there is no charge.

Name the affected body part and the pose, action, or animation frame that makes the failure visible.
Use an HTTPS link to a .blend, .fbx, .gltf, or .glb file. If omitted, SkinSmart will request the file by email.

No payment is collected here. SkinSmart only presents the $29 choice after a result is usable and passes review. No usable improvement means no charge.

Inspect the weights yourself first

The free analyzer runs locally in Blender 4.2 or newer. It flags suspicious weights and selects affected vertices, but it does not include the experimental repair engine.

Download free analyzer

Install the ZIP from Blender using Edit > Preferences > Get Extensions > Install from Disk. Do not extract it first.

Diagnostic flags can be false positives, so review them in the rig's intended poses. A handful of emails total; unsubscribe anytime.