Best way to attach spikes to skinned cactus character?
I'll bet this is a super simple fix, but I'm a newbie, so bear with me! I'm animating a cactus character with spikes all over her body, and trying to figure out the best way to attach them so they deform correctly (or more accurately, DON'T deform, just follow the body) with movement. I duplicated the model and tried a few ways, and none of them seem to be working. As soon as I skin the character and move it, this is what happens. The spikes seem to have weights attached to the arm tip that pull them away from the body, and I can't seem to adjust them:
I've tried 1)parenting the spikes group to the body and skinning all together
2) skinning the body and the spikes separately
3) skinning the body first, then parenting the spikes
Using the paint weights tool doesn't seem to be working on the spikes (maybe they're too small to paint?), and the component editor isn't working the way it has on other projects. I remember using it to input vertex values and zero them out in other areas before, but when I select the spikes and open the editor, I just see this, no values to adjust:
Is there a better way to do this? What am I missing?