Maya: Lattice - How to edit a Lattice or add a custom Lattice to a mesh

Autocon

So I ran into an issue that it would seem no one at my studio could figure out, not even the tech guys.

How do you either edit your Lattice Cage in Maya without deforming the object to get a custom Lattice or how do you apply an un-linked Lattice to an object so that you can then deform the object based on that Lattice?

Any info would be awesome.

m4dcow

Any reason you wouldn't use a wrap deformer for this?

Jason Young

Yeah, if you attach an ffd after the fact, it will still inherit the changes you made to the lattice points.

Wrap or wire deformer might work for what you need. Are you able to give a specific example?

Autocon

Well I have no idea what Wrap or a Wire deformer is, and looking at the tools it isnt clear at all what they do or how to get them to work.

Lattice seems like the closet thing to a Max FFD, if Maya has one I have no clue where it is or how to use it.


I obviously cant show the exact context I want to use it but here is a quick example showcasing the same principle.

I want to create a custom shape lattice like the one shown below. I then want to attach said custom lattice to a model like bellow.

If I click create Lattice while the object is selected I cant edit the Lattice shape into the custom shape I want without it effecting the geometry. If I create the Lattice shape first I have no idea how to bind it to geometry.

haiddasalami

Hey Autocon, AFAIK you cant use a custom lattice shape (maybe through scripts or plugins) but you can try using a wrap deformer as JMYoung mentioned. Just create your proxy shape, and select the mesh you want to deform and shift select your proxy mesh and go to create deformers -> wrap

Sharvo

I played around with this a bit last night. but i have not been able to allow a mesh to keep its original shape after putting a lattice on it. That sounds a bit confiusing.

But I was successful in putting a lattice from one object on to another, its strange but the way to do it is through using the hypershade not the hypergraph. The way i did it was to select the two different meshes open there graph network in the hypershade and copy the links over. However, as i said as soon as you put the lattice overt the second object it tries to manipulate that shape, so there may be a way of tweaking the links, like i said this was a 10min test i did. Hope this sheds some light!

nullfed

m4dcow and JMYoung are right - the wrap deformer should do what you want:

- Make your lattice:



- In the atributes for the lattice, turn of shading so that it is easier to see what's going on later:



- Select the object you want to deform first and then your lattice:



- In the Animate menus, go to Create Deformers>Wrap (I tend to do this through the Hotbox so I don't have to switch menu sets):



- Check out the different options in your help file to see what they do - I usually use defaults though.



- Move components around on the lattice:

Illusions

Sharvo wrote: »

But I was successful in putting a lattice from one object on to another, its strange but the way to do it is through using the hypershade not the hypergraph.

You can do this easier/quicker by using Edit Deformers > Edit Membership Tool

Also, another way to manipulate a lattice is to group it with its base, for instance group ffd1Lattice with ffd1Base. You can then move, rotate, or scale the group to get the lattice to better fit whatever you want to deform. This does not let you create a custom lattice though, but as others have mentioned, wrap is the better solution for that.