Propagate topological changes from base shapes to their target shapes

How do I use the Paint Blend Shape Weights Tool?

To paint blend shape weights

Select your blend shape deformer’s base shape in the scene view.
Open the Blend Shape Editor by selecting Window > Animation Editors > Blend Shape.
The Blend Shape editor appears.
In the Blend Shape editor, select the slider for the target shape whose weights you want to paint and drag it to a value of 1.

The target shape now has 100% influence over the base shape’s topology. The base shape deforms to reflect the target shape’s topology.
Select Edit Deformers > Paint Blend Shape Weights Tool > .
The Paint Blend Shape Weights Tool settings open in the Tool Settings editor. See Paint Blend Shape Weights Tool Settings.
In the Brush section, set the Opacity value as required.
In the Target section, select the target shape whose weights you want to paint on the base shape from the list of targets. This is the same target shape whose weight you set to 1 in the Blend Shape editor.
In the Paint Weights section, adjust the Value and Paint Operation tool settings and paint the selected target’s weights on its base shape to create the deformations you desire.

By default, your base shape is flooded with a Value of 1.

A Value of 1 (full influence) appears as white painted weights and a Value of 0 (no influence) appears as black painted weights. All other Value settings appear as different shades of gray.

TipTurn off Color Feedback and Show Wireframe in the Display section of the Paint Blend Shape Weights Tool settings to better see the results of the painted blend shape weights on the base shape.
Key the blend shape weights you just painted. See the following procedure.
Repeat steps 3-7 with your other target shapes to create additional deformation effects.

To animate painted blend shape weights

Do one of the following:

In the scene view, select the target shapes whose painted blend shape weights you want to key.
- Select Animate > Set Blend Shape Target Weights Keys.
This menu item keys the painted blend shape weights for the selected target shapes.
In the Paint Blend Shape Weights Tool settings, select the target shape whose painted blend shape weights you want to key from the target list.
- Click the Key Selected Target Weights button.
This button keys the painted blend shape weights for the target shape selected in the target list.

To create a new target shape from the painted base shape

Follow the steps in the previous procedure until you have created a deformation that you want to save as a new target shape.
Select your deformed base shape.
Select Edit > Duplicate.
A copy of your deformed base shape appears over your base shape.
Select the Move Tool and drag the copy of your deformed base shape away from the original base shape.
Rename the copy of the deformed base shape using the naming conventions of your current target shapes.
Select the copy of the deformed base shape and then -click the original base shape.
Select Edit Deformers > Blend Shape > Add.
The copy of the deformed base shape you created is added as a new target shape to your blend shape deformation.

To export a blend shape weight map

Paint your blend shape weights on your base shape until you obtain the deformation or look that you want to export as a map.
Select your painted base shape.
In the tool settings, open the Attribute Maps section and then the Export section.
Set the Export settings and then click the Export button. For descriptions of the Export settings, see Paint Blend Shape Weights Tool Settings.
The Export browser window appears.
Browse to the location to which you want to save the map, specify a name for the map, and then click Export. By default, Maya will place your map in the sourceimages folder of your current project.
Your base shape’s current deformations are saved out as an attribute map.

To import a blend shape weight map

Select your deformed base shape.
In the Paint Blend Shape Weights tool settings, open the Attribute Maps section and then the Import section.
Set the Import settings and then click the Import button. For descriptions of the Import settings, see Paint Blend Shape Weights Tool Settings.
The Import browser window appears.
Browse to the location where the map you want to import resides, select the map file, and then click Import.
Your base shape deforms according to the tool settings specified by the imported attribute map.

Paint Blend Shape Weights Tool Settings

For descriptions of the Paint Blend Shape Weights Tool options common to all Artisan tools (such as those in the Brush, Stroke, and Attribute Maps sections), see Artisan Tool Settings in the Artisan guide.

Target

Target List: Lists the target shapes for the selected base shape. When painting blend shape weights, you can only select one target shape from this list at a time. If you delete any of your target shapes from your scene, they remain listed and available for selection in this section.
Key Selected Target Weights: Keys the painted blend shape weights for the target shape selected in the target list.

Paint Weights

Paint Operation

The paint operations define how your target shape weights are applied to the base shape.

Replace: Your brush stroke replaces the base shape vertex weights with the target weight set for the brush.
Add: Your brush stroke adds the base shape vertex weights to the target weight set for the brush.
Scale: Your brush stroke scales the base shape vertex weights by the target weight factor set for the brush.
Smooth: Your brush stroke averages the weights of adjacent base shape vertices to produce a smoother transition between target weights.

Value: Sets the target weight value to apply when you perform any of the painting operations.
Min/Max Value: Sets the minimum and maximum possible paint values. By default, you can paint values between 0 and 1. Setting Min/Max Value you can extend or narrow the range of values. Negative values are useful for subtracting weight. For example, if you set Min Value to -1, Max Value to -0.5, and select Add for the operation, you would subtract 0.5 from the weight of vertices you paint. Positive values are used as multipliers.

TipTo help you differentiate paint values when you paint with ranges greater than 0 to 1 (for example, -5 to 5), and to maximize the range of values that display when you paint values with ranges between 0 to 1 (for example, 0.2 to 0.8), set Min Color and Max Color (in the Display section) to correspond with the Min/Max values.

Clamp

Select whether you want to clamp the values within a specified range, regardless of the Value set when you paint.

Upper: Turn this on to clamp the upper value to the Clamp Values. For example, if you clamp Upper, set the upper Clamp Values to 0.75, and set Value to 1, the values you paint will never be greater than 0.75.
Lower: Turn this on to clamp the lower value to the Clamp Values. For example, if you clamp Lower and set the lower Clamp Values to 0.5, the values you paint will never be less than 0.5, even if you set Value to 0.25.

Clamp Values: Set the Lower and Upper values for clamping.
Flood: Click Flood to apply the brush settings to all the weights on the base shape’s vertices. The result depends on the brush settings defined when you perform the flood. See Flood paint in the Artisan guide.

Animate > Set Blend Shape Target Weights Keys

Keys the target shape blend shape weights for the current blend shape deformation. When this menu item is selected, the following can occur:

If only the base shape is selected, all its target shape weights are keyed.
If only target shapes are selected, the weights of the selected target shapes are keyed.
If the base shape and target shapes are selected, only the weights of the selected target shapes are keyed.