Deform menu

Found in the Animation (F4), Modeling (F2), and Rigging (F3) 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.

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.

ML Deformer

Creates a Machine Learning (ML) deformer that lets you create a version of a complex deformation system, using training data.

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

Note: The ML Deformer options contain only basic deformer settings. For options specific to the ML Deformer, see the Attribute Editor ML Deformer tab.

See also Create an ML Deformer and Create an ML Deformer using separate Target geometry.

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.

Nonlinear

Creates a Nonlinear deformer.

To open the Nonlinear menu, select Deform > Nonlinear > to create the following deformations:

• Bend deformer
• Flare deformer
• Sine deformer
• Squash deformer
• Twist deformer
• Wave deformer

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:

• Jiggle Deformer Options
• Jiggle Disk Cache Options
• Jiggle Disk Cache Attributes

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:

• Blend Shape Add Options
• Blend Shape Remove Options
• Blend Shape Swap Options
• Blend Shape Bake Topology to Targets
• Blend Shape Edit Normalization Groups

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:

• Wire Add Options
• Wire Add Holder Options
• Wire Parent Base Wire Options
• Wire Remove Options
• Wire Reset Options
• Wire Show Base Wire
• Wire Dropoff Locator Options

See also Edit wire deformers,

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.

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.

Deformer Sets (Legacy)

Edit Membership Tool

You can directly edit deformer set memberships by selecting deformable object points with the Edit 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:

• To prune Cluster deformer set membership
• To prune Lattice deformer set membership
• Pruning sculpt deformer sets in the Editing sculpt deformation effects topic
• Prune Wire deformer sets in the Edit Wire deformers topic

Paint Membership

Select Paint Membership > to open the Paint Set Membership Tool. See also Paint deformer set membership