Maya 2016 Ext 2 Shape Editor help

[Peteman12]

When I work with Maya 2016 Shape Editor, I frequently end up mucking up the underlying mesh, even to the point where I can't undo things. I am wondering if this is a bug, or am I doing something wrong. Are there any tricks to using the Shape Editor that I am unaware of?

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Peteman12

It's hard to tell just from the information you provided. There's a lot of tutorials out there that cover blendshapes and how to properly use them you could check out to make sure you aren't missing a step or anything.

Here's our article on the Shape Editor!

And here's a great video showing off the shape editor.

Please let me know if this helps or if you need any more assistance!

If one or more of these posts helped answer your question, please click Accept as Solution on the posts that helped you so others in the community can find them easily.

Kudos are greatly appreciated. Everyone likes a thumbs up!

[Peteman12]

My problem is that the mesh at Weight/Driver 0 keeps getting affected, even though I have the weight at 1 and have the Edit button on. Am I forgetting to do a step or something?

[sean.heasley]

Hmmm that's unusual.

When you get a chance, can you please zip and attach the scene file here or via dropbox/google drive or another file sharing program so I can take a look at it?

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Peteman12

Just wanted to check in to see how things were going. Are you still having this issue?

[Peteman12]

I am, but it's a very inconsistent problem. I'll get back to you hopefully within a few days.

[sean.heasley]

Thanks for the update! I'll be sure to check in with you in a few days unless you get back to me before then 

[Peteman12 · Accepted solution]

Okay, I think I know what the problem was. Sometimes while working with the Shape Editor, the target would get deselected. So despite the Edit button being highlighted red, it wouldn't affect the selection fully. So, when I was working on the unhighlighted target, it would affect the underlying shape instead of the target.

While I'm here, is there a way to only select the nodes that are currently visible in the Shape Editor? I like writing code to make my life easier, but sometimes the target doesn't work out properly, so I go back and delete it so I can start from scratch (mainly something that is easier to do when I want to make an adjustment then mirror the adjustment). However, it seems to retain the target in the code, just hiding it from my Shape Editor.

How I reveal my Targets. It gives me the shape and its corresponding weight.

import maya.cmds as mc
mshChar = 'myGeo'
history = mc.listHistory(mshChar)
print("history {0}".format(history))
blndName = mc.ls(history, typ='blendShape')[0]
print("blndName {0}".format(blndName))
blndVals = mc.aliasAttr(blndName, q=True)
print("blndVals {0}".format(blndVals))

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Peteman12

While I don't know of any scripts that do that, there are many scripts that can help with Shape Editor and your workflow.

SHAPES is a great popular script that you may want to look into!