Deformer Sets in Maya

I had a project recently that led to me discovering a useful but often overlooked (by me) menu known as deformer sets.

As an example let’s say you have a ball that is deformed by a lattice. Then you need to have another ball deformed by that same lattice, well that’s what the deformer set menu is for.

It can be found under Window>Relationship Editors>Deformer sets.

To get the now unaffected sphere to be affected by the lattice, simply select the ffd set for that lattice in the left column and then the object you want to be influenced by it in the right.

Now the object is affected by the lattice. (The image looks weird because the sphere isn’t  sitting in the center of the lattice).

Okay, now what if you only wanted a specific part of that object affected by the lattice? You can use the Edit Membership tool under the animation set in Edit Deformers> Edit Membership.

Make sure you have the lattice (or whatever other deformer you are using) selected. Hold down shift then use the cursor to select the verts you want to add or use ctrl to deselect them. Now you can see that the specific area that was selected is being deformed. That’s all there is to it!