[Maya] Consolidate Wrap Deformers?

Rigging
,
#1

Hi,

Is it possible to consolidate wrap deformers?

For example, instead of the default

Driver01
Driven01 (Wrap01)
Driven02 (Wrap02)
Driven03 (Wrap03)

It would be nice to have this set-up (i.e. one wrap deformer to rule them all instead of three)

Driver01
Driven01 (Wrap01)
Driven02 (Wrap01)
Driven03 (Wrap01)

Main reason is all of those driven objects have the same driver anyway and it would be easier to manage on only one deformer.

I tried checking the wrap deformer in the node editor but it only allows one driven object connection but I could be wrong.

Is there a way around this?

#2

I don’t think so unless your meshes are all exact duplicate meshes. But if they have different vert count, vert placement, etc, they are going to need something to do that different math for each mesh, which is what Wrap01, Wrap02, Wrap03 are doing.
It’s not that they all have the same driver. It’s that one driver has to drive different meshes. It’s about moving individual vertices in space relative to the vertices of the driver. So if they meshes are different, the fall off from vert to vert is going to need to be different and stored somewhere.

1 Like
#3

Could you do a mesh combine with history on, using the resulting combined mesh as the wrap? You could keep the originals around to move with the DC but the influence object will include all of their geo…

1 Like
#4

@Technically_Artistic @Theodox

Ah gotcha. I guess there is no way around it. Thanks for the confirmation.

RE: Could you do a mesh combine with history on . . .
Yea. This could be a decent workaround but I am not allowed to modify the number of meshes or anything under the geo_grp :frowning:

Will keep this in mind in the future.

Have a great day ahead!

#5

Of course you can put that combined mesh in a separate group in the rig, e.g. in a data_GRP or alike which is solely used for rigging purposes. :wink: