You can edit all of a
wire deformer’s attributes with the Attribute Editor.
WarningDo not use
Freeze
Geometry on wire deformers if you plan to move the base wire.
Otherwise, if you have
a wire deformer whose Freeze Geometry attribute
is turned on and you move its base wire relative to the deformed
surface (or vice versa), the deformation’s behavior will change
the next time the scene is loaded into Maya.
To edit wire channels with the Channel Box
- Select a wire deformer node (default
name: wiren).
One quick way to select
the wire deformer node is to select the object being deformed, and
then select the wire deformer node in its history from the Channel
Box (under INPUTS).
Note that you can control
which attributes are listed as keyable attributes (channels) in
the Channel Box with the Channel
Control editor (select
Window
> General Editors > Channel Control).
- In the Channel Box,
click the name of the channel you want to edit.
- In your scene, -click
and move the mouse to the left or right. By moving the mouse, you
interactively change the value of the selected channel. As you move
the mouse, note that pressing the key
will give you finer control, and pressing the key
will give you coarser control.
To edit wire attributes with the Attribute
Editor
- Select the wire deformer node (default
name: wiren).
- Open the Attribute Editor by
selecting
Window > Attribute Editor or
use the default shortcut +a.
- Set the attributes.
See
wire.
To add a wire dropoff locator
- To select a curve point on the influence
wire, -click
the influence wire curve and select Curve Point from
the marking menu.
- Click the influence wire curve roughly
where you would like to put the wire dropoff locator. The curve
point is displayed as a small yellow box.
- Drag along the curve to adjust the point’s
position on the curve.
As you drag, you move
the curve point. The curve point’s position is defined in terms
of the curve’s U parameter.
Now you need to specify
the curve point as a wire dropoff locator.
- Select
Create Deformers > Wire Dropoff Locator.
The curve point is now
a wire dropoff locator.
- To add more wire dropoff locators, repeat
steps 2 through 5.
To move a wire dropoff locator
- Do one of the following:
You can now drag the Show
Manipulator’s handles to move the dropoff locator along
the influence wire curve (changes the Param and Local
Position attribute values) or scale the dropoff locator’s
influence (changes the Percent attribute
value).
To edit a wire dropoff locator’s channels
- Select the wire dropoff locator shape
node (default name: locatorShapen).
- In the Channel Box,
edit its channels.
Note the wire deformer
also includes Envelope and Twist channels
for each wire dropoff locator. These channels correspond to the
wire deformer’s Envelope and Twist attributes.
See
wire.
To edit a wire dropoff locator’s attributes
- Select a wire dropoff locator (default
name: locatorShapen).
- Open the Attribute Editor by
selecting
Window > Attribute Editor or
use the default shortcut +a.
- Edit the attributes.
For more information
on wire dropoff locator nodes, see
dropoffLocator.
To smooth jagged effects
- Do one of the following:
- Increase the wire deformer’s Dropoff
Distance attribute. See
wire.
- Add more points to the object’s surface.
For example, if the object is a NURBS surface,
increase the number of control vertices.
Add and remove holders
Holders
are curves that limit the deformation region. Adding or removing
a holder can sometimes lead to unexpected changes in the deformation
region. You can remedy these effects by editing and pruning the
wire deformer set.
You can a holder to a
deformer only if it doesn’t already have a holder.
To add a holders
- Select the curves you want to add to
the deformer as holders.
- -click on
any wire in the deformer to select the deformer to which you want
add the curve as a holder.
- Select
Edit Deformers > Wire > Add Holder.
The selected curve becomes
a holder for the wire deformer.
To remove a holder you
must delete the curve. If you need the curve, first duplicate the
curve then delete the original one (that serves as a holder).
To remove holders
- Select the curve that you want to remove
as holder.
- Delete the curve.
Move, rotate, scale holders
Moving, rotating, or
scaling holders can change the deformation effect and the deformation
region. You can move, rotate, or scale a holder in the same way
that you would move, rotate, or scale any object in Maya.
Edit the shape of holders
Editing the shape of
holders can change the deformation effect and the deformation region.
You edit the shape of holders in the same way that you edit NURBS
curves during modeling.
Prune wire deformer sets
Pruning
is useful for quickly limiting the deformation region as you manipulate
influence wires.
To prune deformer set membership
- Select a wire deformer node.
- Move the influence wire(s) so that only
those points you want to keep in the deformer set are being affected.
- Select
Edit Deformers > Prune Membership > Wire.
The undeformed points
are removed from the deformer set.
NotePrune
Membership only removes points from the deformation if
they are currently not affected by the deformer. Therefore, if you
try to prune the membership of an object whose points are all controlled
by the deformer, you will receive the error message “No components
could be pruned.”
To delete a wire deformer
- Select the wire deformer node.
- Select
Edit > Delete or
use the default shortcut (Linux
and Windows) or (Mac
OS X) key.
The deformer nodes are
all deleted. However, the object still has the tweak node as an
input node, so any tweaks you might have made are preserved.