This ghosting you're talking about has happened to me too. I discovered that even though you can't see the painted weight in the affected areas, it is still there. The way I fixed it was to pose the character until the unwanted deformations showed up then I would choose a joint that could likely be causing the problem then paint a zero value over the affected area. If the joint you chose is causing the problem, you will see the strange deformation begin to disappear. I have also found that in many cases, it is more than one joint causing the problem. For instance, on the dinosaur I rigged, I found that all of the joints in the neck were causing dents to show up on the models chest whenever I turned his head so I chose each joint in the neck individually then painted a zero value over the dents. Each joint only removed a small amount of the strange dents but all togeher, the dents were completely gone.
With the Spine IK you could set up more clusters to give you more flexibility. Choose the nurbs curve created by the SpineIK and add more CVs to it. That way you can make more clusters.
I think your IK problem with the arm could be caused by you trying to pose the arm in a way that can not be solved by the IK solver. Which IK solver are you using? You should be using the IKRP solver. It will allow you to rotate the shoulder. If you need to rotate the shoulder to get the pose you're after, you might have to rotate the pole vector of the IK. If you don't and you try to twist the arm, it WILL twist in an extreme and unwanted way. You can set up a locator or other object to aid you in positioning the pole vector although the pole vector comes with it's own manipulator.
I hope some if this info helps
Last edited by Velusion; 11-11-2005 at 04:41 PM.