Quick Guide - IngoClemens/rampWeights GitHub Wiki

General

When properly installed the default Deform menus of the main Maya menu bar contain the menu items Edit Ramp Weights and Edit Weights Server at the bottom.

All controls in the editors feature tooltips. Select the nodes in the Attribute Editor to edit additional attributes which are not included in the editor.

Setup

• Open the editor by choosing Main Menu > Deform > Edit Ramp Weights or Edit Weights Server.
• Select the blend shape channel from the channel box or deformer which should be controlled.
  • Press the Add Node button at the top right of the editor.
  • The ramp weights or weights server node gets created and is set to be the current node in the editor in the drop-down list.
  • The deformer folder lists the connected blend shape channel or deformer.
  • The attribute folder shows the attributes of the selected ramp weights or weights server node.
• Adjust the attributes to control the weighting effect.
• (Weights Server only) Select a transform, curve or mesh as an influence object and press the Add Influence button in the influence folder of the editor.

Add Output

• Select one or more blend shape channels by selecting these in the channel box or select one or more deformers.
• Press the Add Deformer button at the bottom of the deformer folder.

Additional Options

• RMB the ramp weights or weights server option menu to select the node or delete it. When deleting you can choose either to keep the generated weights or discard them.
• RMB the name of the controlled deformer in the deformer folder to select the deformer.
• Buttons for each deformer output (left to right):
  • Invert
  • Add Transform (ramp weights only): Creates a locator which can be used to place the effect. RMB to connect a custom transform, disconnect or delete. When a transform is connected use this button to select it.
  • Disconnect and keeping the weights.
  • Disconnect and removing the weights.
  • Update components: When setting up a deformer to be controlled the affected components get copied to the ramp weights or weights server node. However, since the affected list of components can change either through removing components or editing blend shape targets the data set can become out of sync between the deformer and the weights controller. In this case it's necessary to update the list of affected components.