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New Version – Zoo Tools Pro 2.12.3d – Jan 2026

This release continues to refine and polish Hive’s facial rigging workflows, with further per-joint controls for the face and spine components, a new head_face_games template, a new spine offset control, build joints on face vertices, the Guides Visibility Manager, and a more straightforward UI with comprehensive tooltips.

We’ve also focused heavily on stability—particularly around facial rigs—with numerous targeted bug fixes.

This page covers Zoo Tools Pro 2.12.3, 2.12.3a,  2.12.3b, 2.12.3c and 2.12.3d.

Version 2.12.3a, released on 29 December, focuses on minor bug fixes and stability improvements.
Version 2.12.3b, released on 30 December, fixes more minor issues.
Zoo Tools Pro 2.12.3c, released on 15 January, completes per-joint controls for the face, adds spine per-joint controls with a new offset pivot spine control, introduces a lower-joint Head_Face_Games template for game workflows, and includes additional bug fixes and stability improvements.
Version 2.12.3d, released on 16 January, fixes a scale issue related to the spine ik, regression issue from 2.12.3c.

For the complete list of 2.12.3 fixes, scroll to the bottom of this page.

HIVE ENHANCEMENTS

Mouth Component Improvements

The Mouth component has received a major round of upgrades, expanding flexibility and control when building complex lip rigs:

  • Support for the new per-joint mouth controls, and eye corners in 2.12.3c.

Per Joint Micro Controls on the Mouth can be added.

 

 

  • Mouth & Eyes’ ability to match joints to vertices while matching curves to edges

Match joints exactly to each vertex in a selection.  Upper and lower joint counts must match for lip-zipper which can now be turned off.

 

  • Added Build Zipper option in component settings. Zipper can be turned off for non-matching joint counts on the upper/lower lips.

  • Independent upper and lower joint counts when the zipper is disabled

  • New Joint Distribution options

New mouth settings are tooltipped with explanations.

 

Eye Component Improvements

The eye component has stability improvements building on the last release.

  • The eye per joint settings have been tweaked, with bugs removed.  Eye corner joints now have micro controls too in 2.12.3c

 

Eye Per Joint Control settings are more stable with new distribution options.

 

Eyes can now match joints to vertex with out edge to curve option.

 

Improved eye settings now with tooltips.

 

Guides Visibility Manager

The Guides Visibility Manager continues to evolve, making complex facial setups far easier to manage:

  • Guides Visibility Manager support for component annotations and inner annotations

 

The Vis Manager now supports Comp and Inner Annotations

 

  • Now supports face curve creation while matching joints to vertices

  • Supports mouth curve creation now supporting different joint counts for upper and lower lips

Support for Varying Mouth Counts (Zipper Off) & Match Joint To Vert options.

  • Automatically unsolos everything when the UI opens

  • More compact UI

 

Hive Marking Menu Updates

  • Added marking-menu support for component and inner annotations

 

Component and Guide Annotations in the Hive Marking Menu.

 

  • Guides Visibility Manager is now accessible directly from the marking menu

 

Guides Visibility Manager in the Hive Marking Menu

 

  • Removed the unused Objects mode for a cleaner experience

 

Templates, UI & Core Updates

  • Spline_spine component now has an optional movable pivot control. This control is useful on quadrapeds too. Released in version 2.12.3c.
Optional Pivot Control has been added.

 

  • Spline_spine component now has an optional per joint control option.  Useful for secondary, shape sculpting and breathing/scale. Released in version 2.12.3c.
Per joint controls on the spine.

 

  • Head_face and biped_face templates updated with improved cheek and nose colors

Joint Colors have been fixed on the cheeks and nose.

 

  • Head_face_games template has been added with a lightweight joint count that can be further lowered. Released in version 2.12.3c.
    Head_face_games template with reduced joint count.

     

  • Hive components now include comprehensive tooltips, making settings easier to understand

 

We’ve added component Tooltips for all settings.

 

  • Subtle visual improvements to component layouts in the Hive UI

  • Updated Natalie v3 build script, now without cheek SDKs

  • Hive Core now supports component definition updates at initialization, allowing components to be upgraded in-place with added, removed, or modified settings and guides

HIVE BUG FIXES

This release includes a large number of stability and correctness fixes across Hive’s facial system:

Brow Component

  • Fixed errors when changing joint counts

  • Fixed UI issues where old elements were not removed correctly

Eye Component

  • Fixed Build Joint Controls guide shape rotation

  • Added missing Build Joint Controls option

  • Deleting lid curves no longer removes guide parameters

  • Fixed incorrect positioning when updating eye curves

  • Fixed joint counts not updating when creating curves

Other Component Fixes

  • Aim Component: Fixed empty name issue for pickMatrix

  • FK Component: Fixed cache mismatch when reparenting FK guides

  • Spine Component: Fixed missing joint drivers

Templates & Drivers

  • Fixed cheek driver multiplier conflicts in head_face and biped_face templates

  • Fixed UE templates missing correct face drivers

  • Fixed multiple driver creation issues with conflicting names

  • Fixed driver deletion removing incorrect indices

  • Fixed errors when deleting restricted components from the driver tree

Guide Visibility

  • Hive Core: Fixed visibility settings not being saved correctly.

  • Guides Visibility Manager: “Hide All” now correctly unchecks component annotation visibility

  • Guides Visibility Manager: “Unsolo All” no longer errors when no rig is present in the scene

HIVE BUG FIXES (Zoo Tools Pro 2.12.3a)

This update includes a solid round of Hive fixes focused on facial templates, guide stability, and template workflows.

  • All Face Templates
    All face templates have been upgraded to fix default inner and outer rails not following correctly.

  • All Face Templates
    Brow drivers now correctly live in headsection01 space, while cheek and nose drivers are assigned to headsection02. These improvements now apply across all templates, including biped_face, head_face and UE templates.

  • Eye Components
    Fixed an issue where eye guides were not being locked correctly when building guides for the first time.

  • Template Library
    Fixed a regression that prevented creating a rig from a template when a second rig already existed in the scene.

  • Guide Visibility Manager
    Fixed a crash that could occur when opening the UI in a new scene where the expected rig was not present, triggering a crash on mouse-over.
    We have also added a reapply presets button to the Guide Visibility Manager.

HIVE BUG FIXES (Zoo Tools Pro 2.12.3b)

This update includes minor Hive face related fixes.

  • Face Templates

    All face templates now ship with the nose and head sections properly centred by default.

  • Jaw

    Fixed jaw differentiator blendshapes producing unintended translation at world zero instead of at the jaw center.

  • Mouth

    Regression fixed where lower lip joint counts were not updating to match the upper lip when upgrading from older Hive versions.

  • Eyelids

    Fixed an eye component mirroring regression introduced when attributes were locked in the previous update.

  • Templates

    The UE5 FK Spine template has been restored with the correct, previously overwritten by the IK spine version.

  • Mirroring

    Guide mirroring now correctly preserves the alwaysOnTop xray attribute on curves.

  • Startup & Preferences

    Fixed a preferences issue that could prevent Zoo from starting correctly, resolving the KeyError: 'settings' error.

 

HIVE BUG FIXES (Zoo Tools Pro 2.12.3c)

  • Eye
    Fixed the marking menu not working on joint controls
    Corrected joint controls default rotation (now builds at 90° instead of 180°)
    Corrected default fleshy settings for a more realistic eye defaults

  • Hive FBX Exporter
    Fixed an issue where commas and spaces were not added correctly, this happened when exporting multiple rigs with no namespaces defined

  • God Node
    Fixed an issue where the deformLayer setup rotated without maintaining child rotations

  • Mouth
    Resolved a tertiary joint count error when set to 9
    Fixed marking menu issues on mouth joint controls

  • Templates
    Fixed template loading so existing component version tags are preserved, ensuring update management works as expected
    Face templates corrected default fleshy settings for a more realistic eye defaults

HIVE BUG FIXES (Zoo Tools Pro 2.12.3d)

  • Spine IK
    Fixes a regression issue from 2.12.3c that badly affected components parented to the spine if the rig is scaled.

Zoo Tools Pro 2.12.3 delivers cleaner facial setups, clearer UI, and a more stable Hive experience overall—especially for production-ready face rigs. Update now and enjoy a smoother, more predictable workflow.

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