Rigging rat and painting weights

I have finished rigging the rat and now just ned to paint the weights. I have made controls for all major joints in the body. For the feet and hands, they have a joint at the end of the fingers and feet but not individual joints. This was because, after consulting with Lily, she does not think we will need to animate each finger or toe separately so I have just put a joint in which will effect all the fingers and toes.

I have not added any blend shapes because at the moment they are to needed. I have asked lily to test the model once it is complete to I can make any adjustments or add any blend shapes.

With painting weights, I am not very good at it. I have tried but I can never get it quite right and seem to influence too many vertices. I have tried the using the painting weights tool and also interactive skinning which uses colours rather then shades of grey to help show what is influenced and by how much. All my attempts seem to be disastrous. I think I caused more harm than good.

James Tomkins has painted weights in the past and said he enjoys doing it so I have asked him to paint the weights for me. I would rather someone who knows what they are doing do it for me rather than waste more time and still get it wrong.

This is how the rig looks so far without the weights being painted. The skin has been bound to the rig but it needs to adjust the weights still.

Here is a short video of the working rig, again the weights still need to be painted. 

I need to add the toon shading texture on the rat still to give the 2D look.