Shape key editor
Your complete
shape key
workflow.
SHAPES brings creating, sculpting, combining, driving and organising shape keys into a single toolset, so the technical setup stays out of the way of the work.
Be the first to know when SHAPES for Blender launches.
What is SHAPES
A faster way
to build shape keys.
One workflow for sculpting, combining, organising and driving shape-key targets in Blender, with the manual node and driver wrangling handled for you.
Unified toolset
Create, edit, combine, drive and organise targets from one place, instead of stitching the workflow together by hand.
Artist focused
Built so quick results stay quick, and complex facial or muscle setups stay manageable as they grow.
Proven foundation
A mature toolset with years of production use behind it, now built natively for Blender.
The foundation
Native Blender tech.
Portable setups.
SHAPES works inside Blender's native architecture: standard shape keys, drivers and modifiers. Your setups stay readable, and nothing proprietary sits underneath them.
It handles the technical complexity so the work stays creative, from a single corrective shape to hundreds of facial targets on one character.
Blender-native foundation
Standard Blender data you can open and inspect. No black boxes.
Portable across versions
Tools and finished setups move with you between Blender versions.
License-free at runtime
Finished setups play back and render on a standard Blender install, with no SHAPES licence needed at runtime.
Simple installation
Install as a standard Blender extension and start working in seconds.
Key features
From sculpt to rig.
Dive in and explore. The sections below are live tools, each demonstrating a feature of SHAPES.
Order from the clutter.
Sort hundreds of shapes into a labelled, nested hierarchy, colour-code them by purpose, then filter the list down to exactly what you need.
Try the filters ↑
Colour-label, group,
and filter your shapes.
Feature · Combos
Edit a shape.
The combo holds.
A combo corrective depends on its driving shapes. Edit a driver and the combo result could break, unless propagation recomputes it for you. Dial the open value to engage the combo and see the intended correction. Edit the smile and see the altered corrective upon activation. With propagation turned on, the corrective stays as intended.
Nested combos | A combo can itself drive another combo, creating nested relationships. With propagation, a single low-level edit to smile travels down the whole dependency chain, recomputing every corrective built on it. No manual re-sculpting is required at any level.
Read the docs : Combo Edit Propagation ›Feature · Influence Map
Divide one shape into
regions you control.
A single sculpted expression packs several areas of motion into one shape: lips, eyelids, brows. Influence Map separates that shape into localised regions, so each area can be edited, reused and driven individually without disturbing the rest.
Create the map, pick a region and brush it in.
Maps to create
- Smile L
- Smile R
- Eye L
- Eye R
- Brow L
- Brow R
In SHAPES you name the maps freely and a side identifier pairs left and right for you. The set is fixed here for the demo.
What you're seeing | Each region is painted as a weight map that marks where a sub-shape has influence. The regions are edited one at a time, and in SHAPES they are normalised together so the parts add back up to the original shape. The finished maps are assigned to duplicates of the source shape, so each region can be driven individually. That final assembly is not shown here. Real regions are free-form painted weights; this demo uses six fixed splits to keep the idea legible.
Read the docs : Influence Map ›Feature · Conform Shape
Preserve the precious detail.
When you edit a shape it's easy to lose important detail — smoothing especially. Conform preserves those surface features even when the mesh is stressed by deformation, keeping true to the meaning of the mesh. Drag across the mesh and see for yourself.
What you're seeing | Conform Shape helps recover the natural flow of the surface after editing. It compares the edited vertices to their surrounding geometry and moves them back toward positions that better match the original shape, maintaining the relative distance of points to their neighbours. This helps preserve surface details and reduce unwanted stretching or compression. Like the tool itself, it's a controlled refinement step designed to improve a shape, not a one-click perfect fix.
Read the docs : Conform Shape ›Feature · Post Deformation
Fix the frame.
Hold the shot.
Sculpt a correction on top of the already-deformed mesh, then blend it across the few frames where it is needed. Built for shot fix on animated meshes, including Alembic caches, where ordinary blend shapes cannot reach.
A post-deformation correction is stored as a fixed offset per point, added back to wherever the rig has carried that point at each frame. While the motion is mostly travelling, the offset rides along and the fix holds. As the surface rotates away from the pose it was sculpted for, that fixed offset no longer matches the surface beneath it, so the correction drifts and eventually breaks. Each correction is therefore kept to a short window and blended out before the pose diverges too far. You are authoring shapes by hand here, not generating motion trails.
Read the docs : Post-Deformation ›Corrective poses
Feature · RBF Nodes
Pose in. Shape out.
A radial basis function solver builds a continuous space out of a few example poses. Each sample sits at a position, and the solver blends them into everything in between, landing exactly on a sample whenever you reach it. Drag the puck through pose space below and the mouth is interpolated live from the five lip poses. Widen the kernel for softer, broader blends, or tighten it for sharper ones.
RBF Nodes is a separate add-on. Where a rig is driven by it, the add-on needs to be present wherever that rig plays back or renders.
Read the docs : RBF Nodes ›Feature · Symmetry Map
Mirror with confidence.
Topological symmetry doesn't care that the two sides look different. SHAPES stores a sibling map when the mesh loads, and works the same whether that's one island or several, which makes it very flexible. Sculpt the source side, then mirror it across.
The symmetry map is built once when the mesh loads. For every vertex it records its sibling on the other side. This only happens once and makes mirroring fast and perfect every time. Sculpting stays on the side you edit until you choose to mirror it across, either deliberate, or automatic. Because the map follows topology rather than position, it respects asymmetrical meshes and mirrors across separate islands. Sculpt a feature on one side and the other receives the same change despite being asymmetrical or a separate island.
Read the docs : Symmetry Map ›Also in the toolkit
Everything else
production needs.
The rest of the workflow. Important to the work, lighter on the page.
Create & edit in-pose
Author and adjust shapes in the deformed pose, with Blend Preview to check the result live.
Drivers
Set up and edit drivers, including range and curve, without digging into Blender's driver editor.
Rebuild & transfer
Move entire setups onto new or changed topology when the model updates.
Animation & Shot Fix
Key shapes and apply per-shot deformation fixes, including post-deformation shapes.
Weight maps
Extended weight-map editing, mirroring and import/export.
One-click creation
Add new target shapes without the manual setup steps.
Import & export
Move shapes, weights and complete setups in and out.
Cleanup tools
Clean shape-key data and keep setups tidy.
Native RBF support
Create, copy and mirror RBF Nodes setups directly (separate add-on).
Learning & support
Start with the docs.
Full documentation is available before launch, with quick answers and a direct line if you need one.
Documentation
The complete SHAPES guide, available now. A clear path from install through to the advanced workflows.
Read the docs →
Ask us
A question while you're working? Get in touch.
Contact →
Frequently asked
Common questions about SHAPES. Tap to open.
Does SHAPES work with my existing shape keys?
Yes. SHAPES works with existing Blender shape keys and can be used on characters that already contain shape key setups. Existing shape keys can be loaded, organized, edited, mirrored, driven, and extended using SHAPES.
Do I need SHAPES installed to animate or render a character created with SHAPES?
No. Shape key setups created with SHAPES use Blender's native shape key system and remain fully functional without the add-on installed.
The only exception is when optional RBF Nodes solvers are used. In that case, RBF Nodes must be available for the solver to evaluate during animation and rendering.
Can SHAPES be used on existing rigs?
Yes. SHAPES is designed to work with existing rigs and deformation systems. It can be used to create corrective shapes, facial shapes, pose-space deformations, and animation fixes without requiring a rig to be rebuilt.
Why shouldn't I edit shape keys from Blender's Shape Keys panel?
SHAPES maintains additional information such as grouping, organization, relationships, synchronized shapes, drivers, and other setup data that Blender's native Shape Keys panel is not aware of.
Using both systems simultaneously may lead to inconsistencies. For best results, shape key management should be performed through SHAPES once an object has been loaded.
Why is there no drag-and-drop reordering or drag multi-selection in the Target List?
Blender currently imposes limitations on custom list interfaces that prevent certain behaviors commonly found in standalone applications.
To work around these restrictions, SHAPES uses selection checkboxes and dedicated organization tools. While the workflow differs slightly from traditional drag-and-drop interfaces, it provides reliable management of large shape key setups within Blender's API constraints.
Does SHAPES support linked assets and library-based workflows?
Partially. Blender restricts direct editing of linked mesh data. Existing shape keys can still be managed and animated, but creating new shape keys on a linked mesh must be done in the source file.
SHAPES also supports corrective animation workflows for linked assets through its post-deformation tools.
Can SHAPES edit multiple mesh objects at the same time?
Yes. SHAPES supports Synchronized Shapes, allowing multiple mesh objects to be edited together as a single shape creation process. This is particularly useful for characters consisting of separate body, clothing, teeth, tongue, hair, or accessory meshes.
Does SHAPES support facial rigs?
Yes. SHAPES can be used for facial rigs ranging from simple expression libraries to complex production setups with drivers, combinations, corrective shapes, and RBF-based pose interpolation.
Do I need RBF Nodes to use SHAPES?
No. RBF Nodes support is entirely optional. Most SHAPES functionality works without it.
RBF Nodes is only required if advanced multi-dimensional RBF solvers are needed for corrective shape interpolation or complex rigging setups.
Can SHAPES mirror shape keys on asymmetrical meshes?
In many cases, yes.
SHAPES uses a Symmetry Map system that stores vertex relationships. This allows many symmetry operations to work even when the mesh is not perfectly symmetrical in world space.
Can I transfer my setup between projects?
Yes. SHAPES includes import and export functionality for setup data, shape data, and weight maps. This makes it easier to reuse work across characters, scenes, or production files.
Can I organize large shape key libraries?
Yes. SHAPES provides grouping, filtering, selection tools, hierarchy support, and organizational workflows designed specifically for productions with large numbers of shape keys.
Can I use SHAPES for game development?
Yes. SHAPES operates on Blender's native shape key system and can be used for creating blend shape setups intended for export to game engines such as Unity or Unreal Engine, subject to the capabilities of the chosen export pipeline.
What is Conform Shape?
Conform Shape is a shape refinement tool that helps preserve the original surface flow of a mesh while editing shape keys.
It can be used to reduce unwanted stretching, compression, and irregular vertex movement, helping create cleaner deformations with less manual cleanup.
Why does SHAPES use a loaded object instead of Blender's active selection?
SHAPES intentionally separates its workflow from Blender's context-sensitive selection system.
Once an object is loaded, all operations act on that object regardless of scene selection changes. This reduces accidental edits and provides a more predictable workflow, especially in complex production scenes.
What Blender versions are supported?
SHAPES requires Blender 4.2 or later. Older Blender versions are not supported.
Is SHAPES suitable for professional production work?
Yes. SHAPES is based on workflows developed for the production-proven SHAPES tool for Autodesk Maya and is designed to support both individual artists and larger production environments.
What licenses are available?
Private / Educational License - 20 €
For personal learning, educational use, and non-commercial projects.
Commercial License - 60 €
For professional and commercial work.
Be there at launch.
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Pre-launch preview
SHAPES for Blender
Still cooking,
almost within reach
To shorten the wait, this page contains some interactive tools, explaining
some of the features of SHAPES. Not with the actual interface, but in a
slightly different way.
See for yourself.
Need a detailed picture?
Check the documentation links on the page.
Disclaimer
SHAPES for Blender is in active development and not yet released. This page contains no downloads.
The interactive tools in the features section are purpose-built explainers. Each one demonstrates the concept and intent behind a feature using its own visual metaphor. They don't show the actual SHAPES interface.