Maya 2022 and deformer sets???

[joel]

Hi Everyone,
We've just updated to Maya 2022 for our most recent project, and all has been working well, until now.
I've got a compound object (made up of a bunch of parented objects) rigged up with a couple of lattice deformers.
I wanted to add in some more sub-objects to be influenced by the lattice, but when I went to the deformer set editor.... no deformer sets to assign!!!! the list is empty.
So I start a nice clean scene.

1/ Simple sphere.

2/ Lattice.
3/ look in deformer set editor.... nothing.

try the same thing in 2020, and there is no issue! there is the deformer set in the list. 

I also found that if you create the object and lattice in 2020, then it creates a deformer set, and if you then save and import that into 2022, then the deformer set comes over intact and available. But if you create the deformer in 2022; no set, and no assigning through deformer set editor.

I noticed this in the help files:

When you create a deformer, you can use Component Tag expressions to define deformer memberships dynamically, letting you create custom groupings of components, or deformer sets, which is the legacy method of putting deformable object points into a grouping known as a "deformer set".

It seems to be referring to deformer sets as 'legacy'. Does that mean there's a different way to do it now?

Basically I have mesh A with a lattice on it, and I'd like to add mesh B to be deformed by the same lattice.
This used to be done by assigning to the same defomation set, but that doesn't seem to work now.

Any help appreciated.  

[joel]

PS. I've tried deleting user prefs etc. but it made no difference!

thanks

[zewt]

Component sets were replaced with component tags.  They're much more robust and easy to work with, since they store membership on the mesh rather than on each individual deformer.  For example, you can delete a deformer and replace it, and rather than having to transfer the deformer set to the new deformer, you just reassign it from the list.  It also simplifies scenes internally by a lot.

Deformer sets are still supported (and I'm guessing they'll never actually go away for compatibility reasons).  You can switch back to them by disabling "Settings > Animation > Use component tags for deformation component subsets".  You can turn it back on when it's convenient to migrate over, and existing scenes should work regardless of what that's set to.

[sktray]

I find this very confusing. How do I assign a single deformer to multiple objects, say after I created the deformer....its not clear, and the old way was very easy to use.

[Anonymous]

hi Joel, i have had the same issue and this is the solution a found, i hope it will help you too, you have just to uncheck those options in animation setting as shown in this image

[nathandickson365]

Here's how you do it in Maya 2022

[nathandickson365]

Here's how you do it in Maya 2022:

[branpatrobinson]

Wow, Thank you so much.

I thought I was losing my mind, and maya was just broken, didn't realise this changed.

Saved my butt with this thread

[support]

I'm having a similar issue, the workflow for components and deformers seemed to come out of nowhere and I can't use the old reliable deformer sets anymore.

The component sets for my deformers is empty, and the help is not great for explaining how to link new objects. Do I need to somehow also add the objects currently effected? Also, I have a softMod deformer that doesn't even seem to have component control.

Is the deformer set editor totally obsolete? I can't get anything to show up, even after doing the preferences tweak shown above.

Please help!

[FlorianDubiel]

I think it is only working when you add new deformers to the scene, existing ones are being ignored, the good think is, it is still the same in 2023.3 🤣😫 why

[dinofiguera]

I can´t explain this. I use Maya 2022 and 2023 and never had this issue. The deformer set editor works fine as it always did...

[gemilang84SVM]

For anyone wondering about how to add another geometry into deformer influence without deformer sets.

Here is a work around i knew (If anyone know any proper method, please let me know) :

1. Prepare Intermediate Mesh

Make sure you have underlying intermediate mesh shape under the transform node (Normally only one shape available before deformed with any deformers). By default it's named with Orig suffix, and intermediate mesh attribute checked.

2. Register Intermediate Mesh To Deformer

Connect the attributes shown in picture above to register the intermediate mesh shape into the deformer. (Make sure you connect to the empty index, and not overriding existing connections)

3. Deformer Output Connection

Connect the Output Geometry attribute of the deformer node (ffd1 in the picture), to the respective final mesh shape's In Mesh attribute.

Note :  In this case, component member all controlled through Component Tags system instead of Deformer Sets