Muscle systems can seem very daunting and far too complicated to consider using in your production pipeline. However, once the concepts are broken down and explained, it becomes clear how to construct them and make them go. This lecture demystifies the two principal components involved: the muscle model and the skinning solution. The presenters cover all the desired features these components can offer. Typically, muscle systems have only been used in the academic arena or as high-end solutions in the feature film industry. Now is the time to start using these techniques in game development. How these systems can be used a game production pipeline is discussed.

Most of the major commercial and open-source systems available for Maya today, as well as theories and strategies for automating the creation of these systems, are compared and evaluated in the presentation. This lecture is the sequel to, and should be used in conjunction with the course presented last year: Helper Joints: Advanced Deformations on RunTime Characters.