New Version – Zoo Tools Pro 2.6.2

Zoo 2.6.2 has a large Hive Auto-Rigger (Alpha) upgrade, a new Matrix Tool , browser upgrades and more.

Hive Auto-Rigger (Alpha) has had many updates including space switching for the head and FK upper arms, new look controls and colors, a new default biped template and many more improvements.

The new tool Matrix Tool (Maya 2020+) which sets/resets Maya’s Offset Parent Matrix; this is handy in both rigging and modeling tasks, see the page for more info.

Maya Scenes and Maya Shaders have had nice improvements for referencing files and saving as .MB and .MA.

Control Shapes now support Maya’s Offset Parent Matrix.

There’s been many stability and general bug fixes too.

Enhancements – Hive (Alpha)
Hive (Alpha) has had many upgrades:

– Right-click space switching added to FK Upper Arms and Head controls.
– Right-click space switch menus now combine with multiple selected component.
– New look controls and colors on all components and templates.
– New generic Biped template added.
– Overall speed improvements while building guides and rigging.
– Feet ball and toe guides now only have one guide each and is much simpler.
– Skin sets have removed joints not used in skinning.
– Ik Twist controls build oriented correctly.
– Updated Spline Component has been added, the old Spine Template has been removed.
– All default templates have been updated.
– Better component names in the Hive UI.
– Polish Rig is now a radio button so there is no need to rig before polishing.
– Ik/Fk switching selects controls more intuitively.
– FK component’s right-click Set Guide Parent has been renamed to Link FK to FK

Bug Fixes – Hive (Alpha)
Hive (Alpha) has had many fixes.

– Upper twist segments flipping at extreme angles is fixed.
– Fixed FK/IK switching the toe tap control 90 degrees incorrectly.
– Twist guides turning on when they are switched off fixed.
– Head Component and god node will now save Guide Control colors.
– Can no longer accidentally parent guides of different components to each other.
– Guides hidden while rigging are now returned while moving back to Guide mode.
– Many stability improvements.

New Tool- Matrix Tool
The Matrix Tool has been added to help manage Maya’s new Offset Parent Matrix attributes in 2020 and above.

This tool is found under the ZooToolsPro (shelf) > Utilities (pocket knife icon) > Matrix Tool

– Modeler Freeze Matrix: Works similar to Maya’s freeze without resetting local space rotation manipulator.
– Freeze To Offset Matrix: Zeroes translation and rotation and scale to one, while moving values to the offset matrix.
– Unfreeze Offset Matrix: Reverses either Modeler Freeze Matrix and Freeze To Matrix

Enhancements – Maya Scenes
Maya Scenes can now reference files and save as both .MA and .MB file types. Right-click on the save icon to save as a .MB.

Open Help (Webpage) and Open .PDF buttons have been moved into the dots menu.

Enhancements – Maya Shaders
Maya Shaders can now save as both .MA and .MB file types. Right-click on the save icon to save as a .MB.

A new Save Shader button has been added to the main UI.

Open Help (Webpage) and Open .PDF buttons have been moved into the dots menu.

Enhancements – Image Browser PNG Support
Image thumbnails in our browsers can now be .PNG or .JPG.

Enhancements – Control Creator/Edit Controls
Control Creator and Edit Controls now both support Maya’s Offset Parent Matrix and so are also compatible with Hive Guide Controls. Edit Controls functions such as Copy Control, Paste Control, Combine Curves, and Shape Parent Replace will all work with Hive Controls.

Enhancements – Replace Shapes
Replace Shapes now supports Maya’s Offset Parent Matrix in Maya 2020 and above.

Bug Fix – Maya Shaders, Maya Scenes
A bug where folders were not saved while being added to Maya Shaders and Maya Scenes has now being fixed.

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To see all tools go to the Zoo 2 Information Page.

Registered users can download from the Zoo 2 Install Page.

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