>>> ROUGH / IN PROGRESS <<<
I started looking into corrective shapes in Maya back in 2004
3 point blend from anim lab
and periodically check in to see what the latest options are, always hoping that someone cracked the case and made a universal, streamlined and production friendly approach. For the longest time, I wasnt able to find one, or at least one that worked for my current projects and clients. As such, I went further and further down the 'add more joints' path. Here's a quick over view as to why
1. Joints can be rigged and automated
2. Meshes, esp in commercials were rarely finales in time for a shape set
3. Game engines wouldn't support it, mind you I started on in games before unreal and unity were the norm.
4. Tools were too confusing and I was too in experienced.
5. Tools created custom nodes that the client or server farm also had to have installed.
As such, more joints were easier as they could be automated and I got fairly good at skinning and transferring weights. I've built multiple systems for corrective joints
1. Corrective joints
2. Ankle from anim lab
3. Shipkov shoulder from henning
4. Lac beast muscles
But the desire to have true shapes to get that little bit extra, the folds, creases and anatomy, not just volume preservation still itches in the back of my mind. So I figured I would document my latest round looking into corrective shape options in 2025. I'd like to thank the online community for helping find, suggest and create such amazing resources. Special shout out to robbie and sierrna. For further thoughts, check out the Twitter thread ( https://x.com/KielFiggins/status/1952094522097139968 ) and the linkedIn thread ( https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7357860716462153728/ )
Set Driven Keys
Maya default works fine for hinge, or single axis driven deformation like a knee or elbow, but falls apart when you introduce more axis, like twist on a wrist or free range like a shoulder. That's the main reason the other tools were created.
Comet cones
Make your own pose reader, marco tutorial. I also use his eye lid setup.
Maya Pose Editor
Added to Maya in 2016, I had hoped that it would be a reliable starting point.
1. Bit clunky of a workflow
2. Examples are for bare minimum tasks
3. Odd results on wrist
Maya Pose Editor on animation puppets
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UzWtYL5jHs
Brave Rabbit Shapes
Another solution I had known about as it's been around for a while. It seems the most industry standard, but there are a few draw backs mainly needing a paid licence to use and only supported with the latest version of maya, though the need of custom nodes seems to be resolved so after the shapes are created, the client or end user is only using vanilla maya.
Unreal Pose Wrangler
I had wondered what all those additional joints in the unreal skeleton was for or more importantly controlled, so that's one mystery solved. From my initial investigation, this looks like a robust SDK driver for joint transforms and though that does quiet help on current project, I can already see it being useful on another. Specifically, having robotic pieces move around to remove intersection on an armored suit. What I'm also curious about is using this setup solely to output 0 to 1 joint information that then drive shape values. It's a bit layered and convoluted but I've done worse.
