Moving, rotating, or scaling wrap influence objects

You can produce deformation effects by manipulating the wrap influence objects.

If you have a group of influence objects, note that moving, rotating, or scaling the group node will not produce deformation effects because the base objects are in the same group as the influence objects. Maya provides deformation effects based on differences between the influence objects and the base objects. To produce deformation effects, you have to manipulate the influence objects individually. If you want to manipulate all the influence objects as a group, you can create a new group that includes only the influence objects and not the base objects. Alternatively, you can remove the base objects from the already existing group. To do so, select the base object(s), and then select Edit > Unparent.

Manipulating wrap influence object points

You can produce further deformation effects by manipulating the points of wrap influence objects. For example, you can create effects by moving one or more CVs of a NURBS wrap influence object, or by rotating or scaling several CVs.

Moving, rotating, or scaling deformed object

You can produce deformation effects by manipulating the deformed object in the vicinity of the wrap influence object(s).

Editing NURBS wrap influence object channels

NURBS curves or surfaces acting as wrap influence objects get two attributes added to them: the Dropoff and Wrap Samples attributes. The most convenient way to edit these channels is to use the Channel Box, but these attributes are also listed by the wrap influence object’s Attribute Editor, under the Extra Attributes tab.

Editing polygonal wrap influence object channels

Polygonal surfaces acting as wrap influence objects get three attributes added to them: the Dropoff, Smoothness, and Influence Type attributes. The most convenient way to edit these channels is with the Channel Box, but these attributes are also listed by the wrap influence object’s Attribute Editor, under the Extra Attributes tab.

Adding and removing wrap influence objects

You can add more wrap influence objects at any time after you create wrap deformers.

In removing a wrap influence object, what you remove is the object’s role as a wrap influence object. Removing does not delete the object.

Improving performance

You can improve the performance of a wrap deformer with the Max Distance creation option, channel, and attribute. For more information, see To edit wrap deformer channels with the Channel Box, To edit wrap deformer attributes with the Attribute Editor, and Create Deformers > Wrap.

You can also improve performance by changing dependency graph evaluation performance, and by changing node behavior.