A new deformer, Delta Mush, has been added to the Maya deformers. Delta Mush lets you filter deformation artifacts and create smoothing effects. The Delta Mush deformer is useful in many different workflows such as paint-free skinning, smoothing of coarse simulation results, and shot post-correction.
New Add New Target, Edit, Rebuild Target Shape (recycle icon), and Remove Target (trash can icon) buttons have been added to the Blend Shape Editor let you create, edit, and remove target shapes without cluttering the scene.
A new Playback option has been added to the Display Layer Editor to let you turn off display layer visibility during playback. The Playback toggle appears as a "P" in the Display Layer Editor columns between the "V" & "T/R". Activate Playback to hide layers that are not critical for playback and improve performance.
The Up Axis attribute for IK handles now includes Positive X, Negative X, and Closest X orientation options. You can locate this drop-down list in the Attribute Editor for a selected ikHandle node. Expand the IK Solver Attributes, then expand the Advanced Twist Controls.
In addition, the new Forward Axis drop-down list provides the positive and negative X, Y, and Z orientation attributes. You can use the Forward Axis and Up Axis attributes to specify what local joint axes are aligned with the Up Object vectors.
You can now add deformers to a selection of edges or faces. Maya automatically converts edges and faces to vertices when you create a deformer that supports polygonal objects. For example, select an edge loop, then select Create Deformers > Cluster to add a cluster to the selected edges.