maya basic create custom attributes for your rigs

maya basic create custom attributes for your rigs

The goal of a functional character rig is to provide the animator with the maximum control from the simplest interface.

This tutorial will demonstrate how to create custom object attributes. We will also be writing some simple expressions to connect those attributes to the node we want to control.

Let's say we want to create a control that will allow the animator to lean this pumpkin character from side to side.
When the pumpkin leans to the left, we want him to pivot from the contact point on the left side. And when he leans to the right, he should pivot from the contact point on the right. If he always rotates from the same pivot point in the middle, we have intersection with the ground plane.

Of course, the animator could always just rotate and translate the pumpkin by hand. But aside from being a lot of work, it's bound to look "floaty" in the end. Our task is to make the animator's job easier.

Ok, so how do we achieve multiple pivot points?

The best way is to parent the pumpkin under a couple of null nodes. Select your object and group it twice. Select the inner group and rename it "LeanLeft." Select the outer group and rename it "LeanRight." Now select the pivot points and move them where we want them. (On a PC, hit the "insert" button to toggle the pivot mode.
Now, we can select the LeanLeft node and rotate to make the pumpkin lean to the left. Select the LeanRight node to make the pumpkin lean to the right.

Excellent! We have the desired effect in place using the group nodes with different pivot points. The pumpkin is able to lean from side to side. But it's still not easy to animate. We don't want the animator to have to be selecting different groups to lean each way. It would be great if we could control the lean with one attribute.

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Human IK and stereo Cameras in maya

Human IK and stereo Cameras in  maya

Animating a character flipping or spinning around can be a hurdle in 3d. A character will forward flip over a different center of gravity then if it were to spin around 180 degrees on its right heel. Typically the solution is to set up a hierarchy of groups with pivots at different locations in which the animator can choose to rotate individually as needed. The problem with this solution, besides the redundancy of having so many group nodes to dig through, is that it takes a heavy amount of preplanning to pull it off cleanly. The idea here is to make one control that will easily move around the character's center of gravity in order to rotate the character as a whole around that center.

Let it be clear that this is a MOVABLE pivot not an ANIMATABLE pivot. What that means is that it is generally a one time deal per shot. Once the control starts rotating, translating it can cause some very funky results. If you have a character that is walking and then you use the movable pivot to make it turn left 90 degrees on its heel, trying afterwards to move the pivot over to the right heel will cause the character to translate oddly. However, if the character does a forward flip 360 degrees (essentially rotating the control back to its initial orientation), then the control can be moved and used again.

1. Create a locator (create > locator), name it "objectLocator"
this will represent the character rig or object to be rotated at different centers

2. Group objectLocator to itself and name the group "locatorBuffer"
this is where the movable pivot will do its work leaving the objectLocator free to be transformed as needed underneath

3. Create a nurbs circle (create > nurbs primitives > circle), name it "movable pivot"
this will represent the movable pivot control that is simply translated into place and then rotated4. Open the connection editor (window > general editors > connection editor), select the movablePivot control and click Reload Left in the connection editor then select the locatorBuffer group and click Reload Right in the connection editor

5. Find and click the translate attribute on the left side to select it and then find and click rotate pivot on the right side to make the connection. This will lock the Rotate Pivot of the buffer node to the translate values of the movable pivot. Next we need to connect the rotation of the movable pivot to that of the buffer node so find and click rotate on the left side to select it and then find and click rotate on the right side to make the connection | save my driven keys?

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Prepare an existing skeleton for HumanIK maya 2013

Prepare an existing skeleton for HumanIK maya 2013

Before you can use the Definition tab to map the bones in your character's skeleton to the nodes understood by the HumanIK solver, you must set up your character in a basic T-stance that provides HumanIK with crucial information about the proportions of your character's skeleton and its joint transforms.
Your character's T-stance must match the description and example given below as closely as possible in order for the inverse kinematics and retargeting solvers to produce accurate results for your character. Without a properly configured T-stance, the solvers will base all of their operations on faulty data, and will likely produce skewed, awkward or unexpected poses.
The T-stance has the following requirements:
The character must face along the positive direction of the Z-axis.
The arms must be spread along the X-axis. The left arm should therefore be pointing along the positive direction of the X-axis.
The top of the character's head must be up, in the positive direction of the Y-axis.
The character's hands are flat, palms facing the ground, with the thumbs parallel to the X axis.
The character's feet need to be perpendicular to the legs (with the toes pointing along the Z-axis as shown). The feet must not be rotated around the Y-axis (meaning the toes of the left foot should not point inward toward the right leg or outward away from the right leg).
You can convert a 3ds Max CAT bipedal character into a Maya compatible HumanIK character. This compatibility lets you transfer your character structure, definition, and animation from 3ds Max into an FK representation on a HumanIK skeleton in Maya. Any changes or new animation that you create in Maya can be updated on your original CAT character in 3ds Max. You can then continue to animate in the context of your 3ds Max scene.
In 3ds Max, create a CAT bipedal character and position it in a T-stance. (See Prepare a skeleton for HumanIK.)
NoteA T-stance is required to ensure that your CAT character has a valid skeleton definition once it is transferred to HumanIK in Maya.
Select a spine bone and open the Modify panel.
Set the Spine Control to Keyframed and click Yes in the warning dialog box that appears.

Repeat steps 3 and 4 for the neck bone.
Select your CAT character and send it to Maya ( > Send to > Send to Maya > Send as New Scene).
Selecting one element of your character will send the entire character to Maya.
NoteIf your CAT character is not a valid biped, it will be sent to Maya without a skeleton definition. If your CAT character is a biped with extra limbs, the bipedal part of the structure will be converted to HumanIK and the remaining limbs will be converted to simple joints.
Maya opens and loads your CAT character as an HumanIK character with a valid skeleton definition. Any animation that you transferred from 3ds Max is baked on to your character's HumanIK skeleton and/or simple joints.
Animate this HumanIK character in Maya.
To use a HumanIK Control rig, open the Character Controls window (Skeleton > HumanIK or Window > Animation Editors > HumanIK) and ensure that your character's name displays in the Character menu.
Select Control Rig from the Source menu. If your character does not have a Control rig, selecting this option automatically creates a new rig.
To retarget animation from another HumanIK source, assign the other HumanIK character as the Source to your CAT character.

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re-targeted character HumanIK in Maya

re-targeted character HumanIK in Maya 

Developments in CG animation technology are rapid.

Startup developers frequently purport to be bringing to market the next groundbreaking suite of software that will create movie-quality motion at the press of a few buttons.

With such bold claims, it's important to see if such assertions stand up in the real world.

Guildford-based IKinema is one such startup. Armed with tech reportedly distilled from research into spacecraft control, it's developed a plug-in for Maya that boasts true full-body animation of any hierarchy, without the need to go through an intermediary rig or characterisation process (à la HumanIK).

Coupled with this, a straightforward retargeting interface and real-time streaming from popular mocap packages makes for an impressive résumé.

Not to leave game developers out in the cold, runtime implementations for consoles and the ability to add physics constraints to dynamically alter existing motion are also on offer.

Physics infl uences allow characters to react dynamically to real-world forces in a lifelike manner, both at runtime and offl ine

A quick set-up process first creates an instance of the solver at the root of your hierarchy.

Once populated, you can specify what IKinema calls tasks (essentially constraints), which drive a particular joint in position or orientation.

For a generic biped, this would amount to position tasks at the hips, hands, feet, shoulders and neck base, plus an orientation on the head.

The simple workflow is akin to setting up standard chain IK.

If desired, task nodes can be parented under primitive control objects of the kind one might find in a traditional rig.

Tasks are manipulated in the viewport, and the solver determines the most believable pose over the full-body rig while satisfying these tasks.

The end result is of course tunable: you have the ability to set limits restricting movement on a given axis, and sliding an additional mobility attribute has the effect of stiffening the joint up or allowing for more flexibility.

Tasks can also be assigned differing priorities: the solver will bias the posture to satisfy any tasks that you've awarded higher importance.

The benefits of this workflow are clear compared to traditional character set-up, which demands highly specialised skills to build complex rigs with myriad controls.

Being able to work on unconventional hierarchies is a major advantage too.

In this Maya tutorial we will be learn techniques, workflows and best practices for use with Maya's HumanIK (HIK) toolset. Throughout these lessons we will be learning some of the MEL commands needed to add HIK to a character rigging pipeline. Along the way we will look at some of the limitations with the HumanIK toolset and how we can work around them. By the end of the this tutorial, you will comfortable with HIK whether you are an animator with no rigging experience or a TD looking to add HIK to your rigging pipeline. About Digital-Tutors Since 2000, we've been a dedicated team of artists, professionals, representatives and problem-solvers who are truly passionate about teaching the people around the globe who make movies and games. But enough about us, let's talk about you. No matter your skill level or experience, you need an educational resource that helps you conquer complicated topics so you can focus on your future. So whether it's graduating from school, advancing your skill set or getting a promotion, you can access the world's largest online CG training library and find the solution you need in seconds.

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recreate a high-res Zbrush sculpt in Maya with displacement map image

recreate a high-res Zbrush sculpt in Maya with displacement map image

I've spent the last few months trying to find the best settings to render high quality 32-bit Displacement maps from Zbrush3 MD3 with Renderman. Finally it seems I've nailed it, I found it so frustrating that there was so little written about this topic, I had to find out mostly everything myself, I hope by sharing this knowledge I ll save some time for other artists.

Renderman has such a great potential when it comes to rendering Displacements, but its also extremely difficult to set up to get a high quality precise renders without seams. So here is the list, this isnt a complete guide, more of an update/correction to the old Zbrush to Renderman guide, also check out Scott Spencer's Zbrush to Maya pipeline for the maya import settings.

1) Tool: Displacement:SmoothUV, This is the single most important setting if you are using Rendertime SubD-s with Rfm, or using a Standalone Renderman renderer, as if this is not turned on the UV coordinates are not going to be interpolated as Renderman expects them. This will result in bad seam artifacts and generally a very poor representation of your hi-res model, as all the internal UV coordinates will be dislocated so basically everything will be moved off target. ( However if you wish to use basic Maya SubD-s with Rfm, then it Should NOT be turned on) (Smooth UV is a great addition to ZB3.1, this option wasnt working in Zbrush2 with MD2)

2) Tool: Displacement:Adaptive, Also highly important and must be turned on so your Displacements render precisely

3) Tool:Geometry:Cage: Another important setting, I found I get the best results from using the Cage, instead of the level1 or even a morph target( don't forget, if your character is already rigged you can always use this new geometry as a parallel blendshape)

4) Manual UVs: you must have high quality, relaxed, manually created UVs. I also use "Stretch to Square" option in Maya under Window/UVtexture Editor/Polygons/Layout UVs. This will maximize the space available, although this will distort proportions, but if you are painting your texture maps in Zbrush or any 3D paint package, it wont matter, and this will increase the practical resolution of your maps quite a bit.

Renderman is super sensitive to UV seams, so its generally a good idea to have as few seams as possible, and try to hide them at places that arent visible. And this is also a good reason why you should avoid any automatic mapping such as GUV or AUV tiles.

As although for still images AUV/GUV wont cause any problems, but UV seams MAY show up when animating with Motion-blur.

Another tip: If you are mapping some simpler objects you could try to make all borders straight/perpendicular, this will also help to eliminate visible seams.

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