New Version – Zoo Tools Pro 2.11.0

ZOO TOOL PRO 2.11.0 IS HERE!

Hive Autorigger’s modular face now comes with a new template—featuring improved mouth, brows, cheeks, and nose for cleaner deformations and more life in your characters.

For game artists, UE5 templates have been thoroughly tested, with Manny-matching skeletons for seamless export.

The HDRI Browser now supports PNG, JPG, and JPEG so that you can drop in AI-generated skies straight into Maya.

Hive’s Rebuild Tool now keeps your custom settings on rebuild, and the Transfer Skin Weights UI is production-ready with a stronger, more reliable workflow.

We have released patches 2.11.1 on September 4th, 2.11.1a, and 2.11.1b on September 29th, which address additional bugs and issues related to Hive. Please see those in the Hive Bug Fixes section.

HIVE AUTORIGGER – FACE UPDATE

Mouth Component: More natural movement with enhanced secondary controls—mouth corners and lips now react dynamically to jaw motion for smoother, more expressive deformations.

The mouth edge drives the cheeks and nostril components, and also pulls the opposite side of the mouth while hugging a hidden NURBS surface.

Corner controls affect the cheek, nostrils, and the opposite side of the mouth.

Additional attributes help control how the corners influence the shape of the mouth. These attributes also provide flexibility for non-standard mouths, such as creature and full cartoon faces.

Attribute settings control how the mouth is shaped when the corners are moved.

We’ve also included controls for shaping the mouth open, which are essential for non-default creatures/toon mouths as well.

Attribute settings control how the mouth is shaped when the mouth is opened.

Cheek Component: Cheeks automatically follow mouth corners with improved defaults, plus new space switching gives you extra flexibility for more complex setups.

The cheek attributes drive the shape of the cheeks as the mouth corners are moved.

Cheek shapes can also be sculpted via the cheek multiplier attributes.

Nostrils are reused cheek components with lower attribute values on the driver.

Nostrils are cheek components with small driver values.

HIVE AUTORIGGER – UPGRADED TEMPLATES

Face Templates (biped_face, ue5_mannequin, head_face): Build complete, production-ready faces straight from the template. Auto-driven cheeks, nose controls, new face sections, and improved mouth drivers give you cleaner deformations and more expressive rigs right out of the box.

Hive’s face works out of the box. Polish the template, and the rig is operational.

UE5 Mannequin Templates: Perfect for game workflows—now matching Unreal Engine third-person defaults exactly.
Hive’s latest faces have been added to both UE templates and are live-link/FBX exportable.
Female Quinn versions are also available on request.

Hive’s UE5 template skeletons now exactly match Manny.

UE5 templates build with Hive’s face, which is optional and can be deleted.

Toes Template: Added to the Human_Parts group, giving you more complete character setups when you need them.

The toes template can be added to any rig.

Full Body Templates: Ship with the Rebuild Tools Build Script pre-loaded, allowing you to rebuild and iterate faster.

The Rebuild Tools Build Script has been applied to all our body templates for convenience.

Natalie Template: Fully upgraded with the new face system—enhanced mouth, cheeks, nose, and head sections for a polished, expressive demo rig. Please note that her matching model/rigged asset will be released soon.

The Nataie template has been updated to match our new face templates.

HIVE AUTORIGGER – BUG FIXES

Templates now correctly save FK Component joint display settings.
Face Templates: Fixed joint color, scale, and display settings.
Face Templates: Fixed an issue where the Eye Seek controls were not parented correctly.
Fixed an issue where setting joint colors with a display layer override could cause build errors.
Eyes: Eyelid shape, curve, and colors now remain enabled between builds.
Brows: Changing the joint count now correctly deletes unnecessary joints. 2.11.1b
Space Switching: Default driver now saves correctly.
Space Switching: Fixed the issue where space switches would not save if only the default driver were changed.
Blendshape Selection Set: Is now working correctly in 2.11.1b

Zoo 2.11.1 and 1a Patch Notes

Hive Rigs are now built with a Selection Set for PSDs and Blendshape Differentiator Nodes. These nodes aid blendshape setups with attributes for correctives that survive rebuilds.
Top Lip and Bottom Lip length attributes have been added to the mouth Blendshape Differentiator nodes.
Hive FBX Exporter has fixed a bug where animation without meshes correctly aligns the skeleton.
Hive FBX Exporter: Fix tangents and smoothing group options not disabled when meshes are turned off.
Hive Leg Component: A bug has been fixed where an incorrect leg ballFK space switch value was set.
Hive Mouth Component: Fixed a bug that affected incorrect lip roll and translated lips off the NURBS surface, resulting in incorrect poses with Head tilting.
Mouth Component: will parent correctly if the jaw drivers aren’t needed or set.
Mouth Component: Multiplier attributes are now set to non-keyable in the channel box.
Mouth Component: Lips Corner Blender value is now clamped at 0-1.0.

Zoo 2.11.1b Patch Notes

Jaw Component: Has a new blendshape locator setup

HIVE REBUILD TOOL – ENHANCEMENTS

Save time—your rig now adds a build script automatically whenever you use Save To Scene, so rebuilds stay connected without extra steps.

Saving settings to scene auto assigns the `RebuilTools` Script to your rig.

Jump effortlessly between rig modes—guides, controls, skeleton, pre-rig, and polish—making iteration faster and more intuitive.

Rebuild Tools adds options to rebuild the rig entirely or switch to a specific mode.

HDRI SKYDOMES – PNG, JPG & JPEG SUPPORT

Easily plug in AI-generated skies straight into Maya—our HDRI Skydome Browser now supports PNG, JPG, and JPEG formats for faster, more flexible look-dev and presentation.

We’ve added JPG, JPEG and PNG support for AI skydome environments.

SKINNING TOOLBOX UI – IMPROVEMENT

The Toggle Skin Cluster button has been renamed Reset To Bind Pose, providing a more reliable method for moving pivots during manual skinning.

Move joints after skin weights have been applied with Reset Bind Pose.

TRANSFER SKIN WEIGHTS UI – MORE ROBUST

Stronger, more reliable transfers—making it easier to move skinning between meshes without errors.
Transfers now succeed even if the target joint is already skinned.
Fixed issues with Max Influences, so weights transfer cleanly without breaking existing setups.
Updated skeleton presets—now with built-in twist joint variants, giving you easier skin transfers across complete skeletons.

TWIST EXTRACTOR – BUG FIX

The Twist Extractor is working again; it was broken due to a nested code issue.

This tool now features enhanced tooltips that provide more detailed assistance.

ZOO PYSIDE COMPATIBILITY – BUG FIX
A compatibility issue related to large studios using their own version of Qt has been solved.

(Qt) Update qt.py to “1.4.7”, changed QT_PREFERRED_BINDING to ZOO_QT_PREFERRED_BINDING to avoid conflicts with studios, which will lead to crashes if PyQt is used.

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Buy Zoo Tools.

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

Registered users can download and upgrade from the Zoo 2 Install Page.