Lesson 6: Mirroring muscles

Open the scene for the lesson

1. Load the Sabertooth_Mirror_Start.mb file from the Lesson 6 folder.

   This scene contains the saber tooth tiger with muscle applied to the neck and leg joints. You will mirror a muscle from one front leg to the other.

Mirror muscle

1. Open the Muscle Creator window (Muscle > Muscles/Bones > Muscle Creator) and switch to the Create tab.
2. In the Mirror section, select X as the Mirror Axis.
3. Enter _L in the Search field, and _R in the Replace field.

   The muscle for each “side” of the mesh needs to be parented to joints that follow a Left or Right naming convention.

   Tip

   You can also -click the Search field and select from the available naming conventions. This automatically fills in the Replace field.

   
4. Select the front leg muscle surface.
   
5. In the Muscle Creator window, click Mirror Muscle from Selection.

   A new muscle is created on the right front leg based on the selected muscle.

   
6. (Optional) To mirror an additional muscle, select it and click Mirror Muscle from Selection again.
   

Beyond the lesson

In this lesson you learned how to mirror muscles from one side of the mesh to the other. You can find the completed file for this lesson, Sabertooth_Mirror_End.mb, in the Maya Muscle Advanced Techniques folder.