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Puppet Tweaker Ctrls

Tweaker Ctrls are ctrls that follow your current setup, and then deform the mesh with an additional skinCluster.
In this example the Cube Ctrl is a tweaker, that follows the previous skinCluster and blendShape setup, but on top of that deforms the mesh with an additional skinCluster. Alt text

Info

Later in the Face you'll learn about Face Tweaker Ctrls, those are similar logic like this. So if you are planning to set some up for the face, it's recommended to check if those are already taken care in the Face Tweaker Ctrls

How to set it up

Add the limb

The following limbs can work as Tweaker Limbs:

  • singleBone
  • singleTransform
  • belt
  • spine (fk, ikSpline, simple)

The first thing is to activate the postRefJoints attribute. In all limbs it's under the feature, usually located at the bottom:
Alt text

Custom Attacher

Then we have to setup the Attachers, usually with the Custom option. Alt text
The deformers you select there are crucial. Select all the deformers that the tweaker ctrl should follow.
But absolutely do NOT select the skinCluster that the tweaker ctrl will be driving, otherwise you'd get a cycle!

And don't forget the blueprints.

SkinCluster

After you've built everything - for skinning you need to bind it with an additional skinCluster that has a suffix, in this example we use the TWEAKER skinCluster:
Alt text
If you don't have an additional skinCluster with a suffix yet, create one by selecting the mesh and clicking the skin shelf button. In that UI make sure you activate Post:
Alt text

Advanced - Stacking them

In our example the cheeks are not following anything in the TWEAKER skinCluster. But in some cases you want the Tweaker Ctrl to follow some other Tweaker Ctrls that are already there.
To solve that, we add more tweaker skinClusters and stack them:
Basically for the first skinCluster, in the Attach DeformerUI you only specify the blendShape and main Skincluster. Then in the second one you add the main skinCluster plus the first tweaker skinCluster etc.

Warning

It's very easy to run into cycles here. But it's also easy to avoid that, just be aware that the tweaker joints MUST NOT drive any skinCluster that is specified in the attacher. Even just small weights cause a cycle and make the whole rig unstable.

Note

On some complex characters you might end up with five or even more stacked skinClusters:
Alt text

Tip

Keep in mind you can always group some tweakers into one skinCluster to keep the number of skinClusters low. You just have to be aware that tweakers inside a skinCluster can't affect each others.

Advanced - Spine Tweakers

With the spine you can also do some tweaker fk setup that runs on top of another setup:
Alt text
It works with the fk.
And you have to set the custom attachers on ALL (root, fk_xx), and for the PostRefJoints option you specify ON (all fks have attacher) Alt text

Note

This can also work well on the face for cartoony dog noses. But since you'll have a few more deformers there already, you'll have to be very confident with how to stack them