[Maya] Native Way of Adding Geometry to an Existing Deformer?

#1

Hi

Is there a native way of adding geometry to an existing deformer?

Scenario

  1. You have Geo A and you add a Bend Deformer.
  2. Client comes in with a supplemental Geo B that is more or less moves with Geo A.
  3. However, there’s no option in the Deform menu that allows you to add Geo B to the existing Bend Deformer :frowning:

I can do it manually through fiddling with node editor.
But I was wondering if there is a command somewhere that I’m missing out on this feature?

#2

If you go into the hypergraph, find where your Geo A feeds into the deformer. Manually create a PolyUnite and connect GeoA and Geo B to it, then replace the original input to the deformer with the ouput of the PolyUnite.

If it was just deformers you can use the History Window to change the order. But that doesn’t work for non-deformers, AFAICT:

#3

Component Tags does have some new features to update geo.

#4

Thanks for the response.

@Theodox
I can’t use PolyUnite since although Geo A and Geo B has to go more or less the same direction they have different controls.

Use case would be adding a squash and stretch to a head group. The head group can consist of separate geos such as the main head, the brows and the props.

@mudoglu

Interesting. Haven’t heard about this before. Unfortunately, I’m using pre-2022 maya for legacy purposes.

=======
Anyway, thanks for the confirmation guys. It’s not the end of the world. I guess manual/scripting the way it is.

Have a great day ahead! :slight_smile:

#5

You can use the deformer command.

From the docs:

To add additional geometries from your deformer, type:

cmds.select( ‘nurbsCylinder1’, r=True )
cmds.duplicate()

Result: nurbsCylinder2

cmds.move( -2.749017, 0, 0, r=True )
cmds.deformer( ‘squash1’, e=True, g=‘nurbsCylinder2’ )

If you would like to use the UI you can do it through the Relationship editor → Deformer sets

#7

The relationship editor should do it but in Maya 2020+ if you don’t turn off the component tags creation in preferences under settings-animation, it won’t allow you to use the relationship editor since it doesn’t create sets for deformers and you would have to use the component tag system…important to know if you are working in newer Maya and have to save it back to an older version, since it will break the deformers if you do need to give a file to someone on an older version.

#8

Apologies for the late response @R.Joosten @bclark.

Had the same task earlier and went back to this thread for referenced.
Realized that I didn’t respond at all lol.

Anyhow, the solution work as expected.
Also +1 on the “turn off the component tags creation in preferences under settings-animation”.
I wouldn’t be able to figure it out myself.

Thanks again!

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