Muscle Creator window

The Muscle Creator window lets you build deformable/posable, parametric-style NURBS muscles.

Related topics

Create muscles with the Muscle Creator

Create tab

Muscle Name: Lets you specify the base name of the muscle.
Num. Controls/Cross Sections: Lets you specify how many control objects are created along the length, and how many modeling cross sections exist along the length to create the shape.
Num. Segments Around: Sets the number of points on a cross section circle that the muscle will have for modeling.
Attach Start: Lets you load a selected object as the start object for the muscle.
Attach End: Lets you load a selected object as the end object for the muscle.
Create cMuscleObject shape node: When on, a cMuscleObject shape node is created when you click Create Muscle. When off, no cMuscleObject shape node is created.
Create Muscle: Creates a NURBS muscle based on the options specified in the Create tab.

Mirror Settings

Mirror Axis: Lets you specify the axis you want to mirror across.
Search/Replace: Let you specify the naming conventions you want to search for and replace during the mirror operation. For example, when mirroring muscles from the left to the right, you could enter “Lf” in the Search field, and “Rt” in the Replace field.
Mirror Muscle From Selection: Mirrors the currently selected muscle.

Copy/Paste Settings

Copy First Selected Muscle, Paste to Other Selected Muscles: Copies all settings from the first selected muscle (such as jiggle control values and sculpting information), and pastes onto any other selected muscle.

Edit tab

Sculpting settings

Affect: Lets you select which axis of the cross sections to edit. The default is X-Z.
Location: Sets which part of the muscle the Sculpt slider affects. Setting the slider to the left adjusts the start of the muscle more, while setting it to the right adjusts the end of the muscle more.
Falloff: Affects how big the falloff is from the Location. A lower slider value for Falloff means you affect fewer cross sections, a larger falloff affects more.
Sculpt: Changes the size of the muscle.

Grow Settings

Grow to Surface: Enter the name of the mesh you want to grow muscle to, or select the mesh and click the “<<<“ button to load it.
Main Bone: Enter the name of the main joint that runs down the length of the muscle, or select the joint and click the “<<<“ button to load it.
Main Bone Tip: Loads automatically when you load the Main Bone. You can also enter this bone manually using the “<<<“ button.
Angle: Controls which points on a cross section are grown. If you set the Angle to 180, every point on the cross section grows outwards. If set to a value smaller than 180, only points within that angle range grow.
Fat: Sets an offset to keep the grown points inside the surface.

For example if you set Fat to 2, points are grown up to 2 units from inside the surface. You can think of this as an offset from the muscle to the grown surface.
% Rest/Sq/St: For each cross section point that is grown, these values set the final amount for where points are placed. By default the Rest points are at 100%, or where the point hits the surface. You can set the Squash and Stretch percentages so that these curves grow more or less than the Rest curve.

Setting the % Rest/Sq/St values higher than 100% causes the muscle to grow based on the shape of the selected Grow To Surface mesh, but lets the cross sections grow past the mesh.
Grow Muscle: Grows the muscle outwards from the centerline defined by the Main Bone and Main Bone Tip bones you have selected.
Grow Sel Points: Grows the muscle outwards from selected points.
Reset to Cyl: Resets the muscle to a perfect cylinder shape.

Poses settings

Set Current State As buttons

Store the Rest, Squash, Stretch states for the selected muscle.

Reset Width: Resets the Attach locator distance to be the new default start/end width for the muscle.

Cross section settings

Options at the bottom of the Edit tab let you select controls or cross sections for the selected muscle(s).

Controls: Lets you select the cross section controls for each cross section. These are the animation controls that have Jiggle settings for each part.
CSect Rest: Lets you set the Rest or default state cross sections for modeling the default shape of the muscle.
CSect Squash: Lets you select the Squash cross sections, for shaping how the muscle looks in a Squash state.
CSect Stretch: Lets you select the Stretch cross sections, for shaping how the muscle looks in a Stretch state.
Attach Locs: Provides a fast way to select the end point attach locators.
Attach Rest: Lets you select the default attach positions for each cross section, so that you can adjust how the muscle center line is set in default pose.
Attach Squash: Selects the Squash attach points so you can adjust the center line of the muscle for a Squash pose.
Attach Stretch: Selects the Stretch attach points so you can see how the center line of the muscle looks in a Stretch state.