cMuscleDisplace node

This is a locator node that shows the mapping information and location needed to apply the cMuscleDisplay geometric or shader-based deformation effects.

Related topics

The following are the various attributes for the cMuscleDisplace node:

Mode

Sets the projection type of the cMuscleDisplace node.

planar: Sets the displacement to be based on a flat plane. As this plane approaches the surface of the mesh, points move outwards.
cylindrical: Similar, but uses a cylindrical projection. This mode can be more useful when parenting the node to a bone/joint/capsule. In that way, as the bone or joint moves to or from the surface, the displacement effect can occur.
curves: Lets you connect any number of NURBS curves. This replaces the effect of the image map, and instead uses the radius and falloff to control the effect as the curves approach the surface. When in curves mode, the locator displaces as a large letter “C”, and its location/position has no effect.

Length: In Planar mode, controls the size of the plane. (You can non-uniformly scale the displace node to get non-square shapes.) In Cylindrical mode, controls the length of the cylinder. In Curves mode, Length has no effect other than to adjust the displace size of the cMuscleDisplace node.
Size Radius: In Planar mode, this has no effect. In Cylindrical mode, sets the radius of the cylinder. In Curves mode, sets the implied radius of the curves that are connected into the displace node.
Amplitude: Controls the height or strength that the displace node has on the points.
Falloff: For Planar and Cylindrical modes this sets the falloff distance the plane or cylinder has. As the displace node approaches the surface, the displace effect occurs. As it moves away, the effect falls off. This value sets how far it has to move before the effect diminishes to nothing. For Curves mode, this sets the distance from the curve that the displacement falls off from.

Push Mode

Sets the way the displacement occurs. This only affects deformation-based displacement, not render/shader displacement.

normal: Displacement occurs as the point is moved along its normal (or affected by cMuscleDirection nodes/Direction weights for deformation). This is the default.
gizmo: The direction of the push is based on the actual cMuscleDisplace node itself. This can be seen by rotating a planar displace, or by using a cylindrical displacement. In these cases the points move along the direction of the cMuscleDisplace locator, rather than the point normal.

Combine Mode: The order in which you connect cMuscleDisplace nodes matters, as each displace effect is calculated one after the other. Since each displace can affect the mesh, the deformer needs to determine how to combine the two nodes. The default “max” mode takes whichever displacement node and amplitude would push the point the most. This more closely matches how sliding effects work, as whichever node would have the largest effect is how the points end up moving. The “add” mode combines both displacements, always adding the effect of the displace node onto the existing displacement.

In the image below, two displace nodes exist with a soft white square for the image map causing a box to push out. In “max” mode, you can see that whichever is higher causes the points to move out. In “add” mode, the effect of the displace is doubled where the boxes overlap.
Draw: This is a display option only. Shows or hides the locator node.
Highlight: Maya highlights selected objects in white or green by default. When this value is 1, the wireframe for selected objects is highlighted the same way. When set to 0, no highlighting occurs, so the wireframe color does not change when the object is selected.
Color Wireframe: Sets the color the cMuscleDisplace node displays in the viewport. (This attribute displays in the Attribute Editor only.)
Color Wireframe 2: Sets the color the cMuscleDisplace node displays when selected. (This attribute displays in the Attribute Editor only.)
N Sides: For cylindrical modes, sets the visible number of spans/detail on the cylinder. It has no effect on the actual displacement computation.

NoteThe cMuscleSystem node also includes the enableDisplace and collisionDisplace attributes that affect displacement deformations. See Displace attributes.