Dynamic Geometry Attributes overview

Welcome to Dynamic Geometry Attributes, a game-changing addition to Maya that revolutionizes how you work with deforming meshes. Imagine having X-ray vision into your geometry, revealing exactly where surfaces stretch, compress, and shift as your characters move and deform.

Whether you're fine-tuning character rigs or building procedural effects, Dynamic Geometry Attributes puts precision and control at your fingertips. This node-based system analyzes surface behavior in real-time, empowering you to solve deformation challenges faster and create more convincing results than ever before.

Here's the scenario: You're wrestling with a problematic knee deformation that looks great in one pose but breaks in another. Instead of endless tweaking and guesswork, you wire up a dgaTension node and suddenly the issue becomes crystal clear-a visual heat map reveals exactly where the geometry is under stress.

From there, you can drive corrective blend shapes automatically or pipe that data into your shaders to add realistic surface detail like fabric strain or skin compression.

Ready to get your hands dirty? Start by opening the Maya Node Editor and experimenting with the core Dynamic Geometry Attributes nodes:

dgaTension Node

The dgaTension node measures surface tension by comparing input geometry with reference geometry. It offers Edge and UV calculation methods to detect stretch and squash in deformed meshes. The "ComponentTagExpression" attribute allows processing of specific mesh portions for targeted analysis. Output data can be visualized with the dgaVisualizer node and connected to deformer weight lists for driving corrective deformations.

dgaDelta Node

The dgaDelta node computes positional and normal differences between two mesh states, providing precise delta information for each vertex. This node operates similar to the tension node and its output data can be connected using the dgaVisualizer node to display results and can drive deformers by connecting to a deformer's weight list. The node outputs two values: Position Delta under "Position" Delta Mode, and Normal Delta under "Normal" Delta Mode.

dgaVisualizer Node

The dgaVisualizer node provides real-time visual feedback for Dynamic Geometry Attributes data through customizable color mapping. It converts numerical tension or delta values into intuitive heat map displays on your mesh surface. Use the color ramp and scaling controls to adjust the visualization intensity and clearly identify problem areas in your deformations.

dgaToArray Node

The dgaToArray node converts any compound weight list data into Arnold-compatible doubleArray format for rendering workflows. It serves as the bridge between DGA calculation nodes and Arnold's material system, enabling you to drive shader properties with per-vertex deformation data. This node requires custom attribute setup using MEL scripting for proper Arnold integration.