Lesson 2: Set muscle pose states

Open the scene for the lesson

1. Load the Sabertooth_Set_Start.mb file.

   This scene contains the saber tooth tiger with a front leg muscle.

2. Scrub the timeline to see how the leg muscle deforms throughout the animation.

   Notice the exaggerated deformation of the front leg muscle. By default, all muscles contain a certain amount of jiggle, which is causing the deformation. In the next steps, you will remove the default Jiggle so that you can better visualize and set the muscle’s pose states.

Setting pose states

To turn off the default Jiggle

1. Select the front leg muscle.
2. Switch to the Front camera in the scene view and select the four green cross section controls along the length of the muscle surface.

   These outer wireframe boxes store the Jiggle settings.

   
3. In the Channel Box, set the Jiggle attribute to 0.
4. Switch back to the Perspective view and scrub through the animation again.

   The muscle deformation is much more natural. Without the default Jiggle value, it is easier to set the three main pose states in the next steps.

To set the pose states

1. Select the front leg muscle.
2. From the main menu, select Muscle > Muscles/Bones > Muscle Creator.
3. In the Muscle Creator, switch to the Edit tab.

   The Edit tab contains controls that let you shape and fine tune your muscle surfaces in the different pose states.

4. Go to frame 3, where the front leg muscle is in a rest state.
5. In the Poses section of the Muscle Creator, click the Rest button.

   This sets the muscle’s current pose as its rest state.

   
6. Go to frame 15 and click Stretch.

   At this point, the humerus and leg joints are almost parallel, indicating a good muscle stretch position.

   The muscle surface thins out when the state is set.

   
7. Go to frame 7 and click Squash.

   This is the point where the humerus is almost perpendicular to the leg joints, indicating a good muscle squash.

   The muscle surface’s volume expands a little to compensate for its new set state.

   

Now that you have set the pose states, you can clearly see the front leg muscle bulge and stretch as you scrub through the animation.

Beyond the lesson

In this lesson you learned about setting muscle pose states. You can find the completed file for this lesson, Sabertooth_Set_End.mb in the Maya Muscle Advanced Techniques folder.

Now you are ready to adjust the muscle’s attach points locators, as well as edit its length and shape.