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Edit deformation effects
Edit deformation effects
Paint wire deformer weights
Edit wire deformers
You can edit all of a wire deformer’s attributes
with the Attribute Editor.
WarningDo not use
Freeze Geometry on
wire deformers if you plan to move the base wire.
Otherwise, if you have a wire deformer whose Freeze
Geometry attribute is turned on and you move its base
wire relative to the deformed surface (or vice versa), the deformation’s
behavior will change the next time the scene is loaded into Maya.
To
edit wire channels with the Channel Box
- Select
a wire deformer node (default name: wiren).
One quick way to select the wire deformer node
is to select the object being deformed, and then select the wire
deformer node in its history from the Channel Box (under
INPUTS).
Note that you can control which attributes are
listed as keyable attributes (channels) in the Channel
Box with the Channel Control editor
(select
Window >
General Editors > Channel Control).
- In
the Channel Box, click the name
of the channel you want to edit.
- In
your scene, -click
and move the mouse to the left or right. By moving the mouse, you
interactively change the value of the selected channel. As you move
the mouse, note that pressing the key will
give you finer control, and pressing the key
will give you coarser control.
To
edit wire attributes with the Attribute Editor
- Select
the wire deformer node (default name: wiren).
- Open
the Attribute Editor by selecting
Window > Attribute Editor or
use the default shortcut +a.
- Set
the attributes.
See
wire.
To
add a wire dropoff locator
- To
select a curve point on the influence wire, -click
the influence wire curve and select Curve Point from
the marking menu.
- Click
the influence wire curve roughly where you would like to put the wire
dropoff locator. The curve point is displayed as a small yellow
box.
- Drag
along the curve to adjust the point’s position on the curve.
As you drag, you move the curve point. The curve
point’s position is defined in terms of the curve’s U parameter.
Now you need to specify the curve point as a
wire dropoff locator.
- Select
Create Deformers > Wire Dropoff Locator.
The curve point is now a wire dropoff locator.
- To
add more wire dropoff locators, repeat steps 2 through 5.
To
move a wire dropoff locator
- Do
one of the following:
You can now drag the Show Manipulator’s
handles to move the dropoff locator along the influence wire curve
(changes the Param and Local
Position attribute values) or scale the dropoff locator’s
influence (changes the Percent attribute
value).
To
edit a wire dropoff locator’s channels
- Select
the wire dropoff locator shape node (default name: locatorShapen).
- In
the Channel Box, edit its channels.
Note the wire deformer also includes Envelope and Twist channels
for each wire dropoff locator. These channels correspond to the
wire deformer’s Envelope and Twist attributes.
See
wire.
To
edit a wire dropoff locator’s attributes
- Select
a wire dropoff locator (default name: locatorShapen).
- Open
the Attribute Editor by selecting
Window > Attribute Editor or
use the default shortcut +a.
- Edit
the attributes.
For more information on wire dropoff locator
nodes, see
dropoffLocator.
To
smooth jagged effects
- Do
one of the following:
- Increase
the wire deformer’s Dropoff Distance attribute.
See
wire.
- Add
more points to the object’s surface. For example, if the object
is a NURBS surface, increase the
number of control vertices.
Add and remove holders
Holders
are curves that limit the deformation region. Adding or removing
a holder can sometimes lead to unexpected changes in the deformation region.
You can remedy these effects by editing and pruning the wire deformer
set.
You can a holder to a deformer only if it doesn’t
already have a holder.
To
add a holders
- Select
the curves you want to add to the deformer as holders.
- -click
on any wire in the deformer to select the deformer to which you
want add the curve as a holder.
- Select
Edit Deformers > Wire > Add Holder.
The selected curve becomes a holder for the
wire deformer.
To remove a holder you must delete the curve.
If you need the curve, first duplicate the curve then delete the
original one (that serves as a holder).
To
remove holders
- Select
the curve that you want to remove as holder.
- Delete
the curve.
Move, rotate, scale holders
Moving, rotating, or scaling holders can change
the deformation effect and the deformation region. You can move,
rotate, or scale a holder in the same way that you would move, rotate,
or scale any object in Maya.
Edit the shape of holders
Editing the shape of holders can change the
deformation effect and the deformation region. You edit the shape
of holders in the same way that you edit NURBS curves during
modeling.
Prune wire deformer sets
Pruning
is useful for quickly limiting the deformation region as you manipulate
influence wires.
To
prune deformer set membership
- Select
a wire deformer node.
- Move
the influence wire(s) so that only those points you want to keep
in the deformer set are being affected.
- Select
Edit Deformers > Prune Membership > Wire.
The undeformed points are removed from the deformer
set.
NotePrune Membership only
removes points from the deformation if they are currently not affected
by the deformer. Therefore, if you try to prune the membership of
an object whose points are all controlled by the deformer, you will
receive the error message “No components could be pruned.”
To
delete a wire deformer
- Select
the wire deformer node.
- Select
Edit > Delete or
use the default shortcut (Linux
and Windows) or (Mac
OS X) key.
The deformer nodes are all deleted. However,
the object still has the tweak node as an input node, so any tweaks
you might have made are preserved.