MAYA DEFORMERS NOT ANIMATING!
Hey Folks! I am new to the site so please bear with me :P. OK I am a digital art student in her second year and just getting aquainted with Maya. (I am kinda used to 3DSmax) but I seem to have a good feel for the programme already and really enjoying working with the Old Girl 
Although I have an issue and my lecturer (whos practically a Maya guru) doesnt know what I am doing wrong here and it is getting irritating LOL! I am thinking that maybe I am just missing out a step or doing something reallllly obvious cos I am thinking too hard about it.
So basically, I am attempting to SIMPLY SQUASH A CUBE as an animation using Non Linear Deformers. It should be simple enough right? The steps that I am taking are As Follows:
1. I create a cube, a simple cube usually divisions 10,10,10.
2. I set a keyframe at 1 on the timeline. as the cube. without any modifications
3. I select the cube and I go to deformers, select non-linear, and chose squash.
4. I then parent the two together, (I make the deformer the parent)
5. I go to the handle option and edit. I.E I squash it to the point that I want it
6 (I should say that before any editing takes place that I am selected a point in the keyframe I want this to happen) I then set this on the time line.
7. I play it back, and the squash has not animated. The first keyframe I set is not a cube bt squashed like the second keyframe.
8. I attempt to try the other deformers but they are all acting the same way. I try parenting the cube but its not working either, I tryed combining but it still does not work)
I know that I am probably doing something REALLY obviously stupid. Any help I could get would be sooooo appreciated. I understand everyone will be busy and working on their own projects but I hope you can help me out I would be sooo grateful I followed youtube tutorials to a T and it still wont work 
Whats is concerning me is even when I follow the tutorial on youtube to a T it wont work on the uni computers or on my own laptop. This is two varying versions of Maya that i am working with too. Its a pickle!!! My lecturer had a sort of "oooooooooooh! I remembered something" moment, where he thought he remembered someone saying that you press another key to set a keyframe when working with deformers. Someone in an older year form me suggested I make a skeletal joint (but surely there must be a simpler way than this?) Sorry if I am coming across as silly with this issue but I am a newie to the programme
PinupPixie xxxx
Although I have an issue and my lecturer (whos practically a Maya guru) doesnt know what I am doing wrong here and it is getting irritating LOL! I am thinking that maybe I am just missing out a step or doing something reallllly obvious cos I am thinking too hard about it.So basically, I am attempting to SIMPLY SQUASH A CUBE as an animation using Non Linear Deformers. It should be simple enough right? The steps that I am taking are As Follows:
1. I create a cube, a simple cube usually divisions 10,10,10.
2. I set a keyframe at 1 on the timeline. as the cube. without any modifications
3. I select the cube and I go to deformers, select non-linear, and chose squash.
4. I then parent the two together, (I make the deformer the parent)
5. I go to the handle option and edit. I.E I squash it to the point that I want it
6 (I should say that before any editing takes place that I am selected a point in the keyframe I want this to happen) I then set this on the time line.
7. I play it back, and the squash has not animated. The first keyframe I set is not a cube bt squashed like the second keyframe.
8. I attempt to try the other deformers but they are all acting the same way. I try parenting the cube but its not working either, I tryed combining but it still does not work)
I know that I am probably doing something REALLY obviously stupid. Any help I could get would be sooooo appreciated. I understand everyone will be busy and working on their own projects but I hope you can help me out I would be sooo grateful
I followed youtube tutorials to a T and it still wont work Whats is concerning me is even when I follow the tutorial on youtube to a T it wont work on the uni computers or on my own laptop. This is two varying versions of Maya that i am working with too. Its a pickle!!!
My lecturer had a sort of "oooooooooooh! I remembered something" moment, where he thought he remembered someone saying that you press another key to set a keyframe when working with deformers. Someone in an older year form me suggested I make a skeletal joint (but surely there must be a simpler way than this?) Sorry if I am coming across as silly with this issue but I am a newie to the programme PinupPixie xxxx
Replies
What you need to do to get this to work:
1. Create cube with 10 divisions as in your steps above
2. With your cube selected, create the squash deformer (this links them together, parenting is not how to do this)
3. In the channel box (with the squash deformer still selected) under "inputs" click on the name of your deformer (e.g. "squash1") to expand the deformer channels.
4. At frame 1 click on the channel named "factor" to select it, then hold right click over it and go to "key selected"
5. Go to frame 10, modify the "factor" value and then set a key on that channel again (or if you have autokey turned on it will have set a key for you when you modified the value).
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