Deform menu

Found in the Animation, Modeling, and Rigging menu sets.
Blend Shape
Creates a Blend Shape deformer on the selected object or group.

See Create blend shape deformers and Shape authoring for more information.

To open and change the Blend Shape options, select Deform > Blend Shape > .

Cluster
Creates a Cluster deformer.

To open and change the Cluster options, select Deform > Cluster > .

See also Create cluster deformers.

Curve Warp
Creates a Curve Warp deformer.
See also Curve Warp options.
Delta Mush
Creates a Delta Mush deformer.

To open and change the Delta Mush options, select Deform > Delta Mush > .

See also Create Delta Mush deformers.

Tension
Create a Tension deformer.

To open and change the Tension options, select Deform > Tension > .

See also Create Tension deformers.
Solidify
Creates a Solidify deformer, which creates the impression of sections of geometry becoming more solid and less stretchy.

To open and change the Solidify options, select Deform > Solidify > .

See also Create Solidify deformers.

Lattice
Creates a Lattice deformer.

To open and change the Lattice options, select Deform > Lattice > .

See also Create lattice deformers.

Proximity Wrap
Creates a Proximity Wrap deformer.

To open and change the Proximity Wrap Deformer options, select Deform > Proximity Wrap > .

See also Create Proximity Wrap deformers and Paint Proximity Wrap Weights Tool.

Wrap
Creates a Wrap deformer.

To open and change the Wrap options, select Deform > Wrap > .

See also Create wrap deformers.

ShrinkWrap
Creates a ShrinkWrap deformer.

To open and change the Shrinkwrap options, select Deform > Shrinkwrap > .

See also Shrinkwrap deformer.

Morph
Creates a Morph deformer, which creates a deformer that morphs to a target.

To open and change the Morph options, select Deform > Morph > .

See also Create Morph deformers.

Wire
Creates a Wire deformer.

To open and change the Wire Tool options, select Deform > Wire > .

See also Set wire deformers.

Wrinkle
Creates a Wrinkle deformer.

To open and change the Wrinkle Tool options, select Deform > Wrinkle > .

See also Create Wrinkle deformers.

Pose Space Deformation
Creates a Pose space deformation. Select the Pose Space Deformation rollout to select the Create Pose Interpolator options or open the Pose Editor.
Create Pose Interpolator options
The Create Pose Interpolator options window has two options:
Option Function
Add Neutral Poses Add Neutral Poses creates the three neutral poses for the selected Pose Interpolator (PI) node using the current joint's orientation: neutral, neutralSwing, and neutralTwist. See Use controller-driven joints with pose space deformations for more information.
Driver Twist Axis To calculate the driver joint twist properly, the Pose Interpolator node needs to know which axis is defined as the twist axis: X, Y, or Z. This is the X-axis by default.
Muscle
Creates a Muscle deformer.

To open the Muscle menu, select Deform > Muscle > .

See also Maya Muscle.
Note: For information on the items and tools available from the Muscle menu, download the Maya Muscle guide in the Other Documentation section of the Maya Documentation Archive.
Nonlinear
Creates a Nonlinear deformer.
To open the Nonlinear menu, select Deform > Nonlinear > to create the following deformations:

See also Create nonlinear deformers.

Soft Modification Tool
Creates a Soft Modification deformer.

To open and change the Soft Modification options, select Deform > Soft Modification > .

See also Use the Soft Modification Tool.

Sculpt
Creates a Sculpt deformer.

To open the Sculpt Options, select Deform > Sculpt > .

See also Create sculpt deformers.

Texture
Creates a Texture deformer.

To open the Texture Options, select Deform > Texture > .

See also Create a texture deformer.

Jiggle
Creates a Jiggle deformer.
Select Deform > Jiggle> to open the Jiggle deformer rollout:

See also Creating Jiggle deformers.

Point On Curve
Creates a Point On Curve deformer.

To open the Point On Curve Options, select Deform > Point on Curve > .

See also Create Point on Curve deformers.

Add Tweak
Adds a Tweak node to the geometry if one is not already assigned. Tweak nodes are not created automatically when you use Component Tags.
Note: If the Add Tweak option is not enabled in the Deform menu, make sure to select a shape node that has had a deformer applied to it in the Node Editor or Attribute Editor.

Edit

Blend Shape
Select Deform > (Edit) Blend Shape > to opens the Blend Shape Rollout, where you can select:
See Shape authoring and Create blend shape deformers for general information on blend shape deformations.
Lattice
Select Deform > (Edit) Lattice > to opens the Lattice Rollout, where you can select:
Remove Lattice Tweaks
Changes the number of divisions on a lattice whose points have been moved, choose Remove Lattice Tweaks, and then change the divisions of the lattice. If you want to change the divisions on a lattice with history, find the input lattice shape and change its divisions. You can find the input lattice by selecting the lattice and looking in the attribute editor tabs for the original lattice shape, which will typically share the same base name as the output lattice appended by “Orig.”
Reset Lattice
Resets the lattice. However, you cannot change the resolution of a lattice if the lattice points have been moved from their reset position or the lattice has history.

See also Edit Lattice deformers.

Wrap
Select Deform > (Edit) Wrap > to opens the Wrap Rollout, where you can select:
Add Influence
Adds the selected object as a new influence for the specified wrap deformation.
Remove Influence
Removes the selected influence object from the specified wrap deformation.
See also Edit Wrap deformers.
ShrinkWrap
Select Deform > (Edit) ShrinkWrap > to opens the ShrinkWrap Rollout, where you can select:
Add Surfaces
Adds NURBs surfaces to the existing deformer.
Remove Inner Object
Removes the connection between the inner object and the wrapper object without deleting the shrinkwrap node. When you remove an inner object, it no longer affects the wrapper object.
Remove Surfaces
Removes NURBs surfaces from the existing deformer.
Remove Target
Removes the connection between the target object and the wrapper object without deleting the shrinkwrap node. When you remove a target, it no longer affects the wrapper object.
Set Inner Object
Lets you reset your inner object after you've created a shrinkwrap deformer in your scene.
Set Target
Lets you reset your target object after you've created a shrinkwrap deformer in your scene.

See also Shrinkwrap deformer, Edit Shrinkwrap deformers, and Shrinkwrap Options.

Wire
Select Deform > (Edit) Wire > to opens the Wire Rollout, where you can select:

See also Edit wire deformers,

Membership

Edit Membership Tool

You can directly edit deformer set memberships by selecting deformable object points with the Set Membership Tool.

See Edit deformer set membership and Paint Set Membership Tool.

Prune Membership
Opens the Prune Membership menu.
You can remove unaffected points from a deformer set based on which points the deformer is affecting. Use this to avoid unnecessary calculations for points that are not being affected by the deformation. Prune Membership is available for only Cluster, Lattice, Sculpt, and Wire deformers
The pruning operation considers only the current position of each component in the undeformed and deformed versions of the geometry affected by the specified deformation. If you have animated attributes of your deformation, the pruning operation is performed based only on the current attribute values. This means that components that are potentially affected at other frames of your animation might get pruned out if they are unaffected at the current frame.
Since a typical blend shape operation has weights of 0.0 for some target shapes at any point in time, this operation is especially dangerous when applied to blend shape deformations. For this reason, there is no menu item provided to prune membership for blend shape deformers. However, you can access prune membership for blend shape deformers through the command line.
See:

Intermediate Objects

Display Intermediate Objects
Turns on the visibility for the current object’s original (prior to deformation) shape. You can use intermediate objects as points-of-reference when deforming objects. For example, you can compare a deformed object and its intermediate object to determine how different the deformed object is from its original shape.
See also Displaying and hiding intermediate objects.
Hide Intermediate Objects
Turns off the visibility for the current object’s original (prior to deformation) shape.
See also Displaying and hiding intermediate objects.

Weights

You can paint deformer weighting for a subtle result.

Paint Weights
Select Deform > (Weights) Paint Weight > to opens the Paint Weights Rollout, where you can select:
Blend Shape
Opens the Paint Blend Shape Weights Tool options.
Cluster
Opens the Paint Cluster Weights Tool options.
Delta Mush
Opens the Paint Delta Mush Weights Tool options.
Tension
Opens the Paint Attributes Tool options.
Proximity Wrap
Opens the Paint Attributes Tool options.
Lattice
Opens the Paint Attributes Tool options.
ShrinkWrap
Opens the Paint ShrinkWrap Weights Tool options.
Wire
Opens the Paint Wire Weights Tool options.
Nonlinear

Opens the Paint Attributes Tool Options.

Jiggle
Opens the Paint Jiggle Weights Tool options.
Texture Deformer
Opens the Paint Texture Deformer Weights Tool options.
Set Membership
Opens the Paint Set Membership Tool options.
Mirror Deformer Weights
Mirrors deformer weights.

Select Deform > (Edit) Mirror Deformer Weights > to open the Mirror Deformer Weights Options.

See also Mirror deformer weights.

Export Weights

Opens the Export Deformer Weights Options, where you can set the options for exporting deformer weights as an XML or JSON file.

Existing nodes

Lets you select from a drop-down list of the deformer nodes in your scene.

File Format
Lets you save the weights in XML or JSON file format.
File name

Enter a file name for the weight map. By default the weight map is saved to your current project directory. Click the folder icon to browse to a different directory.

See also Export and import deformer weights.
Import Weights
Opens the Import Deformer Weights Options, where you can select a file containing the deformer weight map you want to import.
Deformer node

Lets you enter the name of the node where you want to import the weights. You can also select the node from the Existing nodes list.

Existing nodes

Select from a drop-down list of the deformer nodes in your scene.

File name

Enter the name of the XML file you want to import, or click the folder icon to browse and select a file.

Mapping Method

This drop-down menu lets you select from the following options:

Index
Replaces current values on the skinned object with the imported values taken from the XML file, overwriting values only for vertices that match between the mesh and imported weights file (for example vertex1 on mesh to vertex1 of the imported XML file.)
Select this option if you want the import to rely on the index of the vertex in the deformer. This is useful for getting a perfect match between shape nodes and deformers.
Over
Replaces current values on the skinned object with the imported values taken from the XML file, overwriting any default values for weights.
Nearest
Select this option if you want Maya to determine which point gets what weights based on the proximity of the point in the weight map. This can be useful when the index numbers have changed but the topology is very similar or exact.
Ignore names
When on, Maya ignores the names of the deformer nodes when trying to import weights.
Normalize Weights
When on (by default), Maya completes an extra normalization pass while importing the weight values in order to prevent jagged artifacts from appearing on the target mesh. In some cases, these artifacts can occur after weight values are rounded on export.
See also Export and import deformer weights.