Weight Paint Tools

Addon for Blender and 4.5+ containing tools for simplifying workflow in blender weight paint mode.

• Ctrl-X pie menu for managing weights (set, add, subtract, mirroring etc.)
• Custom weights mirroring/symmetrization algorithm
• Custom 3D View colored weights overlay - preview all weights, for all vertices at same time (see image below)
• Mirror Project - custom weights mirroring for all tools, works even if topology is not symmetrical
• copying vertex weights, from selected vertices.
• Transfer vertex weights from selected bone to active bone (has: add, replace, multiply mode) ,
• improved smoothing, levels operations - with properly working symmetry and auto normalization
• custom Gradient Drawing operator. Supports multiple falloffs: ease, linear, Gaussian.
• Override from adjacent - replace selected, broken vertex weights using adjacent geometry.
• Project weights - Project and transfer weights from non selected mesh parts to selection (e.g. from character body to backpack)

Custom colored weights overlay - now comes built-in directly into WPTool

DOCUMENTATION

Video Guide (for Blender 2.8 but things are working the same in Blender 4.x ):

https://youtu.be/lpVFV7YSLgo

https://youtu.be/mN7JYVp1u7k

Update 1.1 (24.08.2018):

• added custom draw gradient tool (defautl hotkey ctrl+D (or from pie: ctrl+X -> Weight Tools -> Draw Gradient) - in weight paint mode when vertex masking is enabled). It has custom gradient profile option, and works with symmetry.
• bugfixes, simpyfing workflow

Update 1.2 (30.08.2018):

• Added "Weight Paint Symmetry" operation that will help you to define symmetrical points on model.https://youtu.be/yO_bpiRPd04
• Bugfixes

Update 1.3 (07.09.2018):

• Added "Fill Weights" When vertices are not normalized (total sum of weights is below 1) then fill the remaining portion with active vertex group weight until it reaches 100%

Update 1.4 (11.09.2018):

• symmetrize - add option (F6) to symmetrize all vert groups for selected vertices.
• Paste weights - make it work with symmetry. So pasting ver weights on right side , will automatically mirror those pasted verts on left.

Update 1.5 (13.10.2018):

• symmetrize - merged into Mirror tool.
• Mirror Tool - added 'All groups' option, to mirror all groups in selection (not just active group).
• Mirror - Project - New tool same as above, but work with meshes that have non symmetrical topology.
• 'Draw Weights' addon - added 'Merge colors' option. With it left and right bones will have same color.
• Video added: https://youtu.be/mN7JYVp1u7k

Update 1.5.2 (18.10.2018):

• paste vert weights on other objects fixed. Now it works based on vert group names, so vert group order dosen't matter.
• add support for r. and l. prefixes
  

Update 1.6.1 (6.11.2018):

• Most operations are waay faster now (probably  between 2x - 10x times)
• Added Lighten mix mode for "Transfer Vertex Weights" operator (get max weight from source and target vert groups)
  

Update 2.0.3 (for blender 2.8) (27.03.2019)

• bug fixes for compatibility with latest daily blender 2.8 builds
• added auto-update feature, in addon preferences. When new release is out, you can use auto-update to automatically download and install new version.
  

Update 2.0.4 (for blender 2.8) (22.05.2019)

• Fixed compatibility with latest blender 2.8 release,
• Fixed gradient tool, mirror project tool.
• improved speed with gradient tool

Update 2.0.5 (for blender 2.8) (26.05.2019)

• Added support for AutoRig Pro plugin,
• Ported 'Draw Weights' addon to blender 2.8

Update 2.0.6 (for blender 2.8) (12.06.2019)

• fix to set weights (cycling through Normalize option, could stuck in one option sometimes)

Update 2.0.7 (for blender 2.8) (22.06.2019)

• added more hotkeys in preferences (so that it can be tweaked to work with Left click keymaps)
• improved drawing in 'Draw Weights' script (draw random color for each vertex group). Now it displays edges and vertices with selection highlight.

Update 2.0.8 (for blender 2.8) (27.06.2019)

• - fixed grow/shrink selection when is modal levels/smooth.
• - Fix undo in modal levels/smooth
  

Update 2.0.9 (for blender 2.8) (10.08.2019)

• Added 'Override from adjacent operator
• bug fixes

Update 2.1.0 (for blender 2.8) (26.08.2019)

• added: add, subtract, replace options to draw gradient.
• fix draw gradient bug
  

Update 2.1.1 (for blender 2.8) (17.09.2019)

• added'Project Weights'
• Better UI when setting 'symmetry search distance'
• added documentation

Update 2.1.2 (for blender 2.8) (04.10.2019)

• fix normalize error
• fix mirror error on Autorig skeleton
• added more descriptive warning when operation fails (rather than throwing errors)

Update 2.1.3 for blender 2.83 and 2.9 (20.02.2021)

• support name.r.00x type of bone names of symmetry.
• added [X] option to remove verts from vertex group
• shift + Scroll will increase/decrease weight by 0.05
• fixed auto-updater on linux.
• fixes auto-updater not working on Mac

Update 2.1.5 (18.12.2022 For Blender 3.x)

• better handling of symmetrical bones/groups names.

Update 2.1.6 (10.03.2023 For Blender 3.x)

• refactored whole mirroring stuff (this affect 90% of addon)

Update 2.1.7 (3.04.2023 For Blender 3.x)

• compatibility with blender 3.5
• simpler drawing for 'Symmetry search distance'

Update 2.1.8 (23.07.2023 For Blender 3.6 only !) :

• moved old bgl drawing to gpu module (addon will work on Metal now) - in both WPTool and Draw_Weight add-ons.

Update 2.1.9 (24.10.2023 For Blender 3.6, 4.x!) :

• Added Blender 4.x support,
• Removed old bgl drawing, moved to new gpu module,
• Fix Smoothing and Levels operators, if not active selected bone is present,
• Show message if trying to select bone from active vertex group, and object has no vertex groups,

Update 2.3.0 (17.02.2025 - for Blender 3.6, 4.x),

• tweak how mirror ignores vert - that are closer that fac*search_dist from center line (fixes mirroring not working when search_dist is very big),
• Draw Weights will draw 'arm.l.xzy' named bones as symmetrical correctly now,

Update 2.4.0 (22.03.2025 - 4.2+),

• Compatibility fixes with Blender 4.4,
• colored Weight Overlay Drawing addon is merged into WPTool addon (no need for separate download/install),

Updated 2.5.0 (23.09.2025 - 4.2+),

• Compatibility fixes with Blender 4.5,
• Colored Weight Overlay should render way faster now,
• 'Transfer Weights' - nicer handling if symmetrical bones pair (like: arm.l and arm.r) is selected,
• Fix: selection of bones in Face mask mode was not working,

Updated 2.6.0 (14.12.2025 - for Blender 4.5+),

• Compatibility fixes for Blender 5.0,
• Fix: 'Set Weights' did not respect user picked weights value correctly,
• do not auto-normalize groups that are not bone-deforming,
• RMB will now apply changes rather than canceling them (ESC - will still cancel most operations)