New Version – Zoo Tools Pro 2.12.4d (updated March 1)

We’re excited to share the latest Zoo Tools Pro update, 2.12.4a, which brings a collection of focused improvements to Hive.

This release refines neck twist behaviour and quad leg ankle alignment for more natural deformation, and Rebuild Tools now supports attribute editing, including lock, hide, min, and max values.

The Guide Visibility Manager includes new presets, including a joints-only view for cleaner setups, and blendshapes are now fully compatible with the auto jaw system. A solid round of workflow polish to keep your rigs clean, flexible, and production-ready.

We’ve also released up to patch D (Updated March 1), fixing numerous bugs. Scroll down to see all the fixes.

HIVE AUTORIGER – IMPROVEMENTS

Head Component: Added support for twisting from both ends of the neck/head chain.

The neck correctly twists from the base control.

Quad Leg Components: Changed ankle IK orientation to align with the ankle instead of the foot; a legacy behaviour option has also been added.

The old orientation matched the foot joint.

The new orientation now matches the ankle more intuitively.

Jaw Component: Fixed an issue where AutoLip rotation was not taken into account in the JawBSDifferentiator results.

Guide Visibility Manager: Added new presets, including joints-only and more standard visibility options.

Hive Driver UI:
We’ve added options to Hive’s direct attribute drivers that now support multiple functionalities, including interactive finger sliders.

The claw interactive slider demonstrates the new update, which includes a multiplier and invert behaviour in the UI.

Claw Interactive Slider created with FK components and the Driver UI.

The Driver UI consists of five components: the wrist, the slider, and three fingers.

The Driver UI helps to connect the slider’s attributes to the rotation of each finger.

Rebuild Tools: Customise Attributes
We’ve added support for additional attribute settings (hide, lock, min, and max) in addition to setting the default attribute values.

These settings will survive a rebuild only if saved to the current scene.

Follow the tooltips formatting instructions exactly to avoid issues.

This shows how to hide the `multiplier attributes` on the mouth component.

Setting min and max attributes. Be sure to follow the convention exactly. Multiple options can be added.

Note: Hidden attributes can be temporarily returned in a single click.

Templates Updated: All templates with heads have been updated to account for changes to neck twists and ankle alignment.

Skeleton Presets (multiple UIs): Updated to better adhere to UE5 standards; chest and hip names have been adjusted in our UIs that feature skeleton presets like Build From Skeleton and Match and Bake Animation.

HIVE AUTORIGER – BUG FIXES

Bugs are logged on our Discord Server, direct links below. Check your version of Zoo in the Zoo Tools Pro menu.

Be sure to update to version 2.12.4d or higher.

Driver UI 2.12.4: Fixed issues related to connecting to the spline spine’s micro controls. Fixed in 2.12.4.
Driver UI 2.12.4a: Fix matrix driver not baking the offset between driver and driven to a multMatrix. Fixed in 2.12.4a.
Driver UI 2.12.4a: Fix for drivers not mirroring correctly. Fixed in 2.12.4a.
Driver UI 2.12.4a: Connectables driver listing jnts as driven types, but jnt ctrls not listed when buildJointControls is True.
Mouth Parent Issue 2.12.4a: A bug related to the mouth in version 2.12.4 has been fixed. Please upgrade to the 2.12.4a patch.
Spline Spine 2.124b: Spline Spine: Adding extra FK Control Count errors. Fixed in 2.12.4b. Discord Link
Quad Leg 12.2.4b: Ankle Flips Badly when Legs Bend. Fixed in 2.12.4b. Discord Link
Spline Spine 12.2.4c: Moving the top control incorrectly rotates the hips. Fixed in 2.12.4c. Discord Link
Spline Spine 12.2.4d: Spine can offset on build due to the new pivot control. Fixed in 2.12.4d. Discord Link
Quad Leg 12.2.4d: Ankle pivot was moved incorrectly when the ankle stretch was changed. Fixed in 2.12.4d. Discord Link