by Mets·Workflow
Images © Mets. Used for product review; image policy.
By Mets and hosted on Blender Studio's tools page, Pose Shape Keys earns its place in the blender_extensions library for keeping sculpted correctives intact after weight or bone constraint edits. Version 1.0.0 focused on the automatic driver set-up.
Pose Shape Keys, developed by Mets, addresses a common rigging headache: corrective shape keys that break when you adjust vertex weights or change bone constraints after sculpting. The add-on stores your final sculpted shapes separately and re-applies them on top of a modified base mesh, provided the topology hasn't changed.
Beyond preserving shapes through weight changes, it opens up several workflows. You can sculpt facial expressions first, set up Actions that move some deform bones into a similar pose, then blend into the pose you sculpted, combining sculpted precision with individual bone control. Symmetry is supported through per-side mask vertex groups, letting you author and propagate both sides of your shape keys at once. You can also author multiple shape keys at once, such as a Fist shape that breaks up into individual finger joint shape keys, with an operator to normalize the masks.
Automatic driver set-up handles simple cases and is often faster than starting from scratch. Version 1.0.0 refined that set-up with options to filter bones by selection and by side. Pose Shape Keys runs on Blender 4.2 LTS and newer.
Pose Shape Keys is best for blender riggers who sculpt corrective shape keys and need them to survive later weight painting or bone constraint changes.
Pose Shape Keys is completely free to download and use.
Pose Shape Keys is compatible with Blender 4.2 LTS and newer, so any current release in that range can run it. The add-on installs as a Blender extension: download the zip and use Install from Disk, or drag and drop it into Blender. It requires no special permissions. Since 4.2 LTS is the stated minimum, check the developer's page if you need to confirm whether an earlier build exists for older Blender versions.
Pose Shape Keys lets you store your final sculpted shapes separately and re-apply them on top of a modified base mesh, as long as the topology hasn't changed. That means you can adjust vertex weights or change bone constraints after creating corrective shape keys without re-sculpting them. The stored shapes are re-applied to the updated mesh, preserving the deformation work you already did. This is the core problem the add-on is built to solve.
Pose Shape Keys includes support for symmetry workflows, letting you author and propagate both sides of your shape keys at once. You create a mask vertex group for each side and assign them to your shape keys. The add-on also lets you author multiple shape keys simultaneously, for example by sculpting a Fist shape that breaks up into individual finger joint shape keys, with a mask vertex group per joint. An operator is included to normalize the masks.
Pose Shape Keys is listed as free here and is released under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later. The developer, Mets, also invites users who enjoy the add-on to support the Blender Studio and leave a rating. It installs without requiring any special permissions, and the developer maintains documentation and a blog post covering how to use it. For current licensing terms and any support options, check the developer's page.
Pose Shape Keys version 1.0.0 improved the automatic driver set-up. It added an 'Only Selected' option so unselected bones are ignored, and a 'Side' option to filter left or right side bones, which previously depended on the shape key's name. The update also clamps values in the driver expression so two negative activations don't multiply into a positive, initializes drivers with keyframes for custom curves, and adds an error message when the expression exceeds its 16-value limit.
Also in Workflow for Blender.
by Hirourk
HAS Paint Layers is a Blender add-on for texture painting that brings layer-based, non-destructive editing to the process. It supports layer management, filters, masks, baking, and PBR texture painting inside the 3D viewport.
by Ailex
Selects all UV islands on one UDIM is a Blender add-on that highlights every island, shell and its corresponding faces on a chosen UDIM tile. Trigger it with Alt+L in the UV Editor.
by FrankFirsching
Node Annotator is a Blender add-on for documenting and maintaining node graphs. It adds one-click creation and editing of annotation frames with text blocks, plus tools for finding and replacing custom node group usages.
by Shift A Technologies
Unwrap Me - Auto UV Seams is a Blender addon that generates UV seams automatically. Seam a whole mesh or grow seams outward from selected faces, with a Developability setting that limits stretch-error to reduce texture distortion.
by Ishara-Sandeepa
ViewTools is a Blender add-on by Ishara-Sandeepa that groups viewport utilities for inspecting geometry. It toggles face normals, silhouette mode, and wireframes, switches background presets, detects n-gons and triangles, and manages subdivision modifiers.
by Salt Media
BlenderAe2 by Salt Media transfers 3D data and objects between Blender and After Effects in both directions, covering vertices, 3D layer transforms, camera data and layer synchronization.
by MACHIN3
Machin3Tools is a continuously evolving collection of tools and pie menus for Blender, gathered in a single customizable package. It ships in two base variants, Prime and DeusEx, with the DeusEx variant adding more advanced tools.
by MikhailRachinskiy
3D Print Toolbox is a Blender add-on with utilities for 3D printing. It analyzes mesh volume and surface area, checks and fixes geometry, hollows shapes, aligns models to the print bed, and exports to STL, PLY, and OBJ.
by glukoz
UVPackmaster 4 is a UV packing engine for Blender that packs UV maps on the CPU and GPU, using the Cuda and Vulkan APIs, and can run on the CPU and all system GPUs at once.
by MMD
MMD Tools is a Blender add-on for editing MikuMikuDance (MMD) models. It handles importing and exporting model, motion and pose data, along with chopping and joining parts, plus rigid body, material and motion editing.
by HaughtyGrayAlien
SimpleBake brings PBR and traditional texture baking to Blender from a single panel. Select objects, choose maps, and bake — no special node groups or new workflow, working with whatever materials you've already built.
