Maya® Muscle provides a number of collision options that can be applied on top of any other deformer. For example, you can apply a multi-collision or Muscle collision in order to get self-collision effects on top of a skinCluster. Collision is deformer-based, and not a simulation, so there is no run up or pre-processing needed.
Maya Muscle provides three different types of collision: Smart Collision, Self-Collision and Multi-Object Collision (which can include self-collision results). In addition, there is a sliding/collision type KeepOut node that can provide sliding effects on transform nodes. Each collision type is described in the following sections:
