Lesson 3: Edit the muscle shape

Each muscle you create using the Muscle Creator is constrained to two separate attach locators on each end. These locators are parented to the joints you specified when you first created the muscle. You can move these locators to change the muscle shape. Here, you adjust them so that the muscle surface wraps around the front leg.

NoteYou can re-parent the muscles to different joints of your rig by re-parenting the muscle attach locators.

Open the scene for the lesson

Load the file Sabertooth_Edit_Start.mb.
This scene contains the saber tooth tiger with a front leg muscle that has all three pose states set.

Adjust the position of muscle locators

To adjust the muscle locators

Select the front leg muscle.
Open the Muscle Creator and switch to the Edit tab.
The lower part of the Edit tab lists all the different cross section controls and attach points available for the selected muscle.
In the Attach Locs section, -select the two end locators of the leg muscle: locMus_L_FrontLeg_End1 and locMus_L_FrontLeg_End2.
Using the Move tool, move the locators lower on the Y-axis until they are near the ankle, then move them on the Z-axis until they are in front of humerus joint.
Notice that the muscle surface stretches to compensate for the new locator position.
Select locMus_L_FrontLeg_Start1 and move it close to the base of the humerus joint, by the side of the leg facing outwards.
Select locMus_L_FrontLeg_Start2 and move it next to locMus_L_FrontLeg_Start1.

Notice that each cross section control along the muscle surface individually rotates to compensate for the adjusted locator position.
Scrub through the animation to see how the muscle behaves based on its new shape.

Beyond the lesson

In this lesson you learned how to shape your muscle by adjusting its attach locators. You can find the completed file for this lesson, Sabertooth_Edit_End.mb, in the Maya Muscle Advanced Techniques folder.

Now you are ready to adjust the length of the muscle surface.