ngSkinTools 2

Win64, English

Viktoras Makauskas

ngSkinTools is a skinning plugin for Autodesk® Maya®, introducing new concepts to character skinning such as layers, any-pose-mirroring, enhanced paint brushes, true smoothing, and more.

Version History

General Usage Instructions

The installer from Autodesk App Store loads the application under the Custom shelf.

http://www.ngskintools.com/docs/

Screenshots

Commands

Installation/Uninstallation

The installer that ran when you downloaded this plug-in from the Autodesk App Store has already installed the plug-in. Windows only: To uninstall this plug-in, simply rerun the installer downloaded, and select the 'Uninstall' button, or you can uninstall it from 'Control Panel\Programs\Programs and Features', just as you would uninstall any other application from your system. The panel on the Plug-ins tab will not be removed until Maya is restarted.

Linux and OSX: To uninstall this plug-in, simply delete the module directory from your system. The panel on the Plug-ins tab will not be removed until Maya is restarted.

Download the .msi and run it on your computer. The installation will place files in C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins\ngskintools2 (unless your %ProgramData% the environment variable is different).

Using an autoloader system, nothing needs to be configured additionally. Maya scans autoloader locations for plugins at startup and configures each discovered plugin automatically. The autoloader will create a “ngSkinTools2” shelf with a button to open UI.

Now, restart Maya and a new tab ngSkinTools2 should appear on your shelf.

Additional Information

Known Issues

For upcoming features and bugfixes, visit ngSkinTools v2 public roadmap.

Contact

Company Name: Viktoras Makauskas

Company URL: http://www.ngskintools.com

Support Contact: support@ngskintools.com

Author/Company Information

Viktoras Makauskas

Support Information

If you have a problem, a question, a feature request, let me know. Your feedback is what drives the project forward!

Documentation

Features, tutorials & FAQ available at ngSkinTools official website.

Contact in private

Use the online contact form or email to support@ngskintools.com.

Version History

Version Number	Version Description
2.4.0	2.4.0 (2025-May-16) Removing license key management features, as ngSkinTools is now free for commercial use as well. 2.3.0 (2025-Apr-05) Added: Maya 2026 release. 2.2.5 (2025-Mar-23) Fixed: in some cases, smoothing was not working when there were locked influences in the layer. Fixed: delay in UI when switching between meshes 2.2.4 (2025-Feb-16) Added: zooming into current paint target while painting (viewport shortcut F) now zooms into selected influence as well. Works with multi-influence selections as well. 2.2.3 (2025-Feb-15) Fixed: when changing intensity in the viewport, in some cases intensity value is drawn with artifacts. This seems to be a Maya bug - attempting a workaround. 2.2.2 (2025-Feb-13) Fixed: UI got broken with 2.2.1, making it impossible to change brush intensity via slider. Added: MMB brush size/intensity controls now support modified keys. Holding CTRL reduces mouse sensitivity, allowing for fine changes in brush intensity; holding Shift key picks intensity from predefined presets. 2.2.1 (2025-Feb-11) Added: MMB controls for brush size/intensity, similar to Maya’s sculpting tools. Middle-mouse button drag left-right controls brush size, and up-down controls brush intensity. 2.2.0 (2025-Feb-03) Fixed: exporting/importing layers for a transformed rigs (e.g. mesh+joints enclosed in a rotated group). All relationships will now be resolved in world-space. Note: there still might be issues with older export files, as they will contain pre-transformed data. Added: option to sort influences alphabetically in influences view. 2.1.6 (2024-Apr-10) Fixed: rebuilding binaries due to false-positive virus warnings 2.1.5 (2024-Apr-08) Added: Maya 2025 release 2.1.4 (2024-Mar-09) Added: “lock influences” button now toggles all selected influences. Added: color ramp display mode for mask; Fixed: growing/shrinking component selection does not update while painting; Fixed: layer effect direction resets after file reload; Fixed: improved memory management for layer hierarchy deletion & undo iteraction. 2.1.3 (2023-Dec-01) Fixed: vertex selection support while painting got broken in 2.1.2. 2.1.2 (2023-Nov-30) Fixed: Added additional checks to prevent invalid weights appearing in layers after smoothing. Some hard-to-reproduce bugs are being reported, so while the cause is unclear, blindly trying some major suspects. Fixed: Slight improvements to color display visibility when painting. Fixed: With multiple layers selected, toggling layers enabled/disabled status should no longer reset layer selection. 2.1.1 (2023-Nov-27) Added: Even if the “Prune Small Weights Before Writing to Skin Cluster” feature is not used, extremely small weights (below 0.000000001) will still be converted to 0 to avoid precision problems with the skinCluster node, which is particularly sensitive to the weight sum not being exactly 1.0. Added: Increase precision for the slider “Prune small weights before writing to skin cluster”. Fixed: Addressed another cause of skinCluster warnings “Warning: Some weights could not be set to the specified value”. Fixed: “Cycle display mode” viewport shortcut should be functional again.

Version Number

Version Description

2.4.0

2.4.0 (2025-May-16)

Removing license key management features, as ngSkinTools is now free for commercial use as well.
2.3.0 (2025-Apr-05)

Added: Maya 2026 release.
2.2.5 (2025-Mar-23)

Fixed: in some cases, smoothing was not working when there were locked influences in the layer.
Fixed: delay in UI when switching between meshes
2.2.4 (2025-Feb-16)

Added: zooming into current paint target while painting (viewport shortcut F) now zooms into selected influence as well. Works with multi-influence selections as well.
2.2.3 (2025-Feb-15)

Fixed: when changing intensity in the viewport, in some cases intensity value is drawn with artifacts. This seems to be a Maya bug - attempting a workaround.
2.2.2 (2025-Feb-13)

Fixed: UI got broken with 2.2.1, making it impossible to change brush intensity via slider.
Added: MMB brush size/intensity controls now support modified keys. Holding CTRL reduces mouse sensitivity, allowing for fine changes in brush intensity; holding Shift key picks intensity from predefined presets.
2.2.1 (2025-Feb-11)

Added: MMB controls for brush size/intensity, similar to Maya’s sculpting tools. Middle-mouse button drag left-right controls brush size, and up-down controls brush intensity.
2.2.0 (2025-Feb-03)

Fixed: exporting/importing layers for a transformed rigs (e.g. mesh+joints enclosed in a rotated group). All relationships will now be resolved in world-space. Note: there still might be issues with older export files, as they will contain pre-transformed data.
Added: option to sort influences alphabetically in influences view.
2.1.6 (2024-Apr-10)

Fixed: rebuilding binaries due to false-positive virus warnings
2.1.5 (2024-Apr-08)

Added: Maya 2025 release
2.1.4 (2024-Mar-09)

Added: “lock influences” button now toggles all selected influences.
Added: color ramp display mode for mask;
Fixed: growing/shrinking component selection does not update while painting;
Fixed: layer effect direction resets after file reload;
Fixed: improved memory management for layer hierarchy deletion & undo iteraction.
2.1.3 (2023-Dec-01)

Fixed: vertex selection support while painting got broken in 2.1.2.
2.1.2 (2023-Nov-30)

Fixed: Added additional checks to prevent invalid weights appearing in layers after smoothing. Some hard-to-reproduce bugs are being reported, so while the cause is unclear, blindly trying some major suspects.
Fixed: Slight improvements to color display visibility when painting.
Fixed: With multiple layers selected, toggling layers enabled/disabled status should no longer reset layer selection.
2.1.1 (2023-Nov-27)

Added: Even if the “Prune Small Weights Before Writing to Skin Cluster” feature is not used, extremely small weights (below 0.000000001) will still be converted to 0 to avoid precision problems with the skinCluster node, which is particularly sensitive to the weight sum not being exactly 1.0.
Added: Increase precision for the slider “Prune small weights before writing to skin cluster”.
Fixed: Addressed another cause of skinCluster warnings “Warning: Some weights could not be set to the specified value”.
Fixed: “Cycle display mode” viewport shortcut should be functional again.