The core of Maya® Muscle is the deformer. The deformer provides the main skin deformation and ties into most of the other parts of the plug-in. It can be used to do muscle and skin deformation, or used as a stand-alone deformer on top of other typical Maya tools to provide options such as caching and per-point jiggle.
The Muscle deformer can be used for several deformation effects, the primary ones being Sticky or Sliding deformation. Any node that has a Muscle Object shape can be connected and weighted for use with these deformation features:
Before the cMuscleSystem node can be used, it must be applied to an object. In addition, various other nodes are typically connected, such as muscles or bones, Muscle Directions, Muscle Smart Collides or other features. This guide explains different aspects of setting up the Muscle deformer and modifying it.
In order to use the Muscle deformer as a skin solution for Sticky or Sliding weights, you must first connect muscle/bone objects. You can connect any NURBS, polygon mesh, or capsule object that has a Muscle Object shape node to the system.
You can connect multiple objects at once, even to multiple Muscle deformed objects. For example, if you select three muscles and two skin objects that have Muscle applied, then select Muscle > Muscle Objects > Connect selected Muscle Objects, the three muscles are connected to both of the skin deformers.
