Blender UVshapekeys

Blender shapekeys driven by UV layout instead of vertex ID — so the source and target meshes can have completely different vertex counts. Corresponding vertices are matched through their UV coordinates rather than their order in the mesh data.

That makes it possible to transfer a shapekey onto a retopologised, decimated, or otherwise rebuilt mesh, as long as the UV layouts line up. Version 2.0 added support for multiple targets in one go, and 2.2 added a "save deformation to mesh" option that bakes the result into the mesh data itself for further editing.

Setup and requirements

Download the .py file and install it as a regular add-on. Requires Blender 4.0 or newer.

There's a silent demo video on YouTube.