FAQ
Can I export driver data outside of Blender, like Unreal Engine 5 or Unity?
- Yes, you can use the driver exporter tool to convert armature motion into keyframes
The .zip doesn’t install in Blender
- Please un-zip the archive and install the .py script
How do I activate an addon?
- Use this 20 sec guide – https://youtu.be/wOv4oHO5Kqg
Is there an addon that can organize my shape keys in folders?
- Naturally you’d generate more and more shape keys and things could get disorganized, for which Shape Key Collections offers the solution with a folder management system – https://inletzone.com/shape-key-collections/
Is there another tool that can extend what I can do with shape keys?
- Master Shape Keys can separate a shape key, in Blender, into multiple individual shape keys. It also can merge or group them together, making things easier to manage. So go ahead and separate both sides of a character’s lips, eyebrows, cheekbones and anything else for further expression and control – https://inletzone.com/master-shape-keys-2/
VIDEO DOCUMENTATION
DOCUMENTATION
Location
Panel
Object Data ‣ Shape Keys ‣ Driver-Rig
Driver Exporter
Panel NLA Editor ‣ NLA Strip ‣ Action
Actions
Generate Key Bones
Update and generate all Control Bones in the active object, creating a 3D interface in the Object Rig. The Control Bones will activate all shape keys targeted under Directional Keys when that bone is moved in a specific way
Add/Remove
Create a new Control Bone or delete the selected one
Up/Down
Move the selected Control Bone up or down in the list. These are generated in the order they appear in this list, although bone ‘Groups’ are all generated together
Swap Left/Right
This will swap any shape keys in this Control Bone intended for one relative direction for another. It does this by looking for pairs of shape keys that start with ‘R_’ or ‘L_’, ‘Right_’ or ‘Left_’ or that end with ‘_R’ or ‘_L’, ‘_Right’ or ‘_Left’. If it finds a pair, it swaps Left with Right or Right with Left
Mirror Shape Keys
This mirrors the direction that is used to trigger the shape keys in a Control Bone. Specifically, it swaps the direction for Up/Down and Left/Right, as well as Bigger/Smaller and Clockwise/Anticlockwise
Duplicate
This makes a duplicate of the selected Control Bone
Driver Exporter
Bake Drivers
For all all selected objects, bake the values of all shape keys (with drivers) to keyframes. This is baked from all NLA Strips of the active object, creating one new NLA Strip which is created for each NLA Strip in the active object
Remove Drivers
Remove drivers from all shape keys of all selected objects
Settings
Object Rig
The rig the 3D interface will be generated to. This will usually be the rig being used to control the mesh. This cannot be ‘none’
Parent Bone
The bone inside the Object Rig the 3D interface will be parented to
Width
This defines how wide the 3D interface will go before the bones will generate on the next ‘line’
Draw Name
Enabling this will generate a label in the 3D interface of the name of the Control Bone to make it easier to track which bone is which. If this is not enabled, it only labels the bones as ‘groups’
All Caps
Because of how Blender renders bones, the text can be difficult to read. Enabling All Caps renders the bone text labels in upper case which is easier to read
Control Bone (each item has its own settings)
Name
The name the bone will be generated with
Group
The group the bone will be generated with. Control Bones in the same Group are generated together and have their own ‘line’ in the interface
Directional Keys
This list of directions show which directions a Control Bone will be able to be moved in to trigger which shape keys. Each direction may have multiple shape keys targeted inside.
Recursive Bone
You may find some more complex setups do not work. Specifically, if the same shape key is being used in opposite directions (the same shape key in ‘Up’ and ‘Down’ for example). Enabling this will allow this to work. However, note that there is a hard limit on how complex a driver in Blender can be, and enabling this setting makes a driver much more ‘complex’.
