Abstract: We present a tool for the user-controlled creation of multiresolution meshes. Most automatic mesh reduction methods are not able to identify mesh regions of high semantic or functional importance, for example the face of a character model or areas deformed by animation. To address this problem, we present a method allowing a user to provide importance weights for mesh regions to control the automatic simplification process. To demonstrate the usefulness of this approach in a real world setting, a Maya plug-in is presented that lets the user create multiresolution meshes with importance weighting interactively and intuitively. The user simply paints the importance of regions directly onto the mesh. The plug-in can handle arbitrary meshes with attributes (vertex colors, textures, normals) and attribute discontinuities. This work aims to show that an integrated editing approach with full support for mesh attributes, which lets the user exercise selective control over the simplification rather than operating fully automatic, can bring multiresolution meshes out of academic environments into widespread use in the digital content creation industry.