Tag: Maya
QtQuick/QML in Maya
In this post, I will discuss how to use QtQuick/QML for tools inside of Maya and whether it should be used in production. Spoiler alert: it shouldn’t. QtQuick is the module of Qt used to write QML applications. Using the QtQuick module allows designers and developers to create modern, fluid, and animated user interfaces such as this: or this useful example: or something more professional and useful such as Telegram. ...
Read more →Quaternion Rotation Output from RBF Solvers
In my previous post, I described how driving an RBF solver with quaternion values for rotational inputs is more reliable than driving with euler inputs. In this post, I will describe a method to output rotational values from an RBF solver. As described in my last post, euler rotations suffer from gimbal lock and multiple solutions to the same rotation. If we were to solve directly to these euler angles, we would see a lot of undesirable flipping depending on the sample inputs. ...
Read more →Quaternion Rotation Input to RBF Solvers
In my previous post, I described how to create an RBF solver using regularized linear regression. While the solver works well for most independent input values, it does not work so well if we want to drive it with euler rotations. Euler rotations are susceptible to gimbal lock and can have multiple solutions for the same rotation. These two joints look like they have the same rotation. But looking at their animation curves tells a different story: ...
Read more →Regularized Linear Regression with Radial Basis Functions
RBF solvers are systems used to interpolate from values in one space to another set of values in another space. Basically a set driven key with arbitrary inputs and arbitrary outputs. This has many applications such as driving corrective shapes, retargeting meshes, or training systems in machine learning to predict values based on a set of known samples. There are several demo implementations and explanations of RBF solvers scattered around the internet: ...
Read more →Swing Twist Decomposition to Offset Parent Matrix
Decomposing a rotation into separate swing and twist components has many useful applications. Maya’s pose interpolator toolset allows shapes to be driven with isolated twist and/or swing components of rotations. This allows a corrective shape in the pectorals driven by the raising of the arm to be independent from the twist motion of the arm. Also, the twist component can be used to drive twist joints more reliably than the euler twist axis by itself, as demonstrated in the video below. ...
Read more →Trig Functions in Maya without Third-Party Plug-ins
By default Maya does not ship with any nodes to calculate trig functions. If you want to use a plug-in, you can use the great plug-in Maya Math Nodes written by Serguei Kalentchouk. If you want or have to use default Maya, there is still hope. I recently added trig function support to dge, my library that converts string math equations to Maya node networks. Using math and trig knowledge, we can recreate these functions with the nodes that come with Maya. ...
Read more →Space Switch Using Offset Parent Matrix
Maya 2020 introduced the offsetParentMatrix attributes to transform nodes. This attribute allows transforms to be driven directly with a matrix and can cut down the number of nodes and connections in your set ups. In this post I’ll show how to set up space switching using the offsetParentMatrix attribute instead of constraints and extra transform nodes. A parent-child relationship is a simple matrix multiplication and can be replicated with a multMatrix node: ...
Read more →Python Scripting for Maya Artists 2.0
I’ve updated my semi-popular pages on Python Scripting for Maya Artists. The material was originally written in 2009 and the pdf has been downloaded over 18,000 time so it was all due for an update. Updates include: Various cleanup on examples and explanations. New material on string formatting. New material on directory traversal. New material on docstring formats. New section on code conventions and PEP8. New section on writing clean code. PDF has been cleaned up and reformatted. ...
Read more →Unit Testing in Maya (Part 2)
Edited: 6/18/2016: Updated RollbackImporter to support relative imports and “from package import module” syntax. In my last post, I went over writing scripts that can be used to write unit tests for Maya tools and then run those tests from the commandline outside of Maya. In this post, I’ll go over running those tests interactively in Maya. Being able to run tests interactively in Maya will greatly speed up debug times when tracking down issues because you’ll be able to see what is going on in your tests. To make the process more user-friendly, I’ll also add a UI to help execute the tests. Again, all of this code is available on my Github. ...
Read more →Unit Testing in Maya
Unit testing is a valuable tool that a lot of studios fail to implement. Unit testing can save a great amount of time and energy (and therefore money) by allowing developers, tool writers, and even content creators to catch broken deliverables before passing them downstream in the pipeline. The lack of unit testing with TD’s is most likely due to one of the following: The person doesn’t know what unit testing is. The person has heard of unit testing but has no idea how to implement it. The person is in production and believes there is no time for creating unit tests. The person knows what unit tests are and just doesn’t want to do them. In this post, I am going to describe unit testing as it relates to assets and Python tools created for Maya. For those that don’t know, unit testing is pretty much a bunch of Python functions that you write that verify your tool is doing what it is supposed to be doing. For example, if you write an ik/fk switch tool, one unit test could be to load a rig, pose the arm in ik, switch to fk, and then check to see if the arm is in the same place. Another example is if you write a blendShape exporter, you can write tests to make sure the shapes are properly recreated when you import them into a new scene. Unit testing gives developers the confidence to update their code and assets with the certainty that their updates are not breaking any existing functionality. ...
Read more →Coming Soon: Creating a GPU-Driven Wrap Deformer in Maya 2016
My next video series is in progress. You can check out the introduction video here and download the open source code on my GitHub. ...
Read more →Compiling Maya Plug-ins with CMake
New year, new site design! I’ve posted some free videos talking about how to compile Maya plug-ins on all platforms using CMake. Check them out here: ...
Read more →Writing a Production-Ready Skin Exporter with the Python API
I released a new tutorial series over at CGCircuit called Writing a Production-Ready Skin Exporter with the Python API. In the videos I go over how to create a more robust skin weight exporter that also handles joint renaming. Head on over and check it out. ...
Read more →Creating a Custom Jiggle Deformer
I have created another video series over at CGCircuit.com. This one is titled Creating a Custom Jiggle Deformer and goes over the creation of a custom jiggle deformer that you can use in your projects. Check it out here. And here is the intro video: ...
Read more →CGCircuit Open to the Public
CGCircuit.com is now open to the public. My Maya API video series and Applied 3d Math series are now available for purchase without the need for an invitation. Check them out if you haven’t already. ...
Read more →CGCircuit.com
The site creators of CGCircuit.com are ready to let more people in and buy my videos! The videos are finally ready to be sold. However, you still need an invite to register on the site and buy the videos. I have a new set of invites to give away so use my contact form to send me your email if you want in and I’ll send you an invite. The Maya API class is still discounted at $80 until a month after the full public release. ...
Read more →Maya API and Applied 3d Math Videos
My Maya API videos will soon be released. I’ve gotten word that they will be open to the public very shortly. The Maya API series is about 6 hours worth of video covering several topics from creating commands, contexts, locators, deformers, file translators, and dependency graph nodes to working with callbacks, multi-threading, attribute editor templates, and distributing your plug-ins. I’ve also created an Applied 3d Math video series. This series is a little over an hour and covers how to actually use 3d math with practical examples. This isn’t your typical how-to-multiply-matrices math tutorial. I don’t even go over how to multiply matrices! The focus of this series is how you can apply 3d math in your day-to-day work. ...
Read more →Reflection Locator
Here is another sample from my upcoming Maya API video series. In the video I discuss custom locators and go through how to implement them. The video series should be available around January 2012. ...
Read more →Draw Curve Context
This is a demo of a Maya context that I developed as part of my upcoming Maya API instructional video series. It draws curves from a mesh. It could be used to draw hair curves or something along those lines. The video series should be available around January 2012. ...
Read more →Maya Move Brush
For some reason, the Maya artisan tool does not have a move brush so I wrote my own. ...
Read more →Free cvShapeInverter Tool
I put up a free shape inversion tool available here. cvShapeInverter is a script and deformer that can invert a shape through a deformation chain so the shape can be applied as a front of chain shape. This has the same functionality as Christian Breitling’s correctiveShape plug-in. He stopped providing it after Maya 2008 so I’m providing a Python version that doesn’t need to be compiled. ...
Read more →Updated Sticky Lips Deformer
This is an update of my sticky lips deformer. In an attempt to make the deformer more automated, I’ve implemented a mode where the vertices stick on contact and then fade off with time. The original mode is based solely on distance and so would stick together even if the mouth was on its way to being closed. The frame stuttering is from the Camtasia settings. The deformer runs in real-time. ...
Read more →UV Blendshape Deformer
A deformer that blends one mesh to another based off of UVs. Mesh topology can differ and you can optionally maintain the initial offset between the two meshes. Uses include transferring existing work onto another mesh. The demo shows transferring shape work from one face to another. The faces have different vertex counts and topologies but share the same UV layout. ...
Read more →Vertex Snap Deformer
A deformer that can drive subsets of a mesh with other meshes. Uses include driving a body with a blendshaped head or driving larger meshes with a heavily rigged subset of the mesh. This can increase performance as the heavy rigging isn’t affecting the larger mesh. ...
Read more →Motion Blur Deformer
A deformer that simulates motion blur geometrically. The amount and falloff of the “blur” can be adjusted with keyable attributes. ...
Read more →Sticky Lips Deformer
This shows a deformer that attracts vertices to a nurbs curve using a distance-based falloff. It can be used to create sticking effects like sticky lips. Various attributes can be adjusted and animated such as falloff, distance threshold, magnitude, etc. ...
Read more →Spherical Radial Basis Function Driven Corrective Shapes
This shows an implementation of a Spherical Radial Basis Function node. SRBF is commonly used in lighting calculations like this http://www.cse.cuhk.edu.hk/~ttwong/papers/srbf/srbf.html. I am using SRBF here to track joint position and orientation. This gives me a weight value per target that I can then use to drive corrective shapes. Each target point has its own falloff and twist attributes to adjust the triggering sensitivity. The rig is my free quadruped rig, Nico, which you can download here:https://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/character-rigs/c/nico. The download does not include the SRBF node since it requires a plug-in. ...
Read more →Maya Technology Demos
More technology demos! First is a dynamic transform node. The node is applied to various joints and IK handles. The node can also drive arbitrary attributes so they behave dynamically as well. Next is a custom jiggle deformer. The reasons why I created my own jiggle deformer as opposed to using Maya’s jiggle deformer is because of speed and ease of use. Mine runs a lot faster and is easier to use. ...
Read more →GPU Blendshape Performance Comparison
This is a performance comparison between Maya’s blendshape deformer and my GPU-based blendshape deformer with 1000 targets on a 30,000 vertex mesh. The test is using an Nvidia Geforce 230M video card. ...
Read more →Skin Sliding Deformer
This video shows a skin sliding deformer I wrote for Maya. It’s paintable, multi-threaded, and fast! ...
Read more →Maya API Notes
I started putting up pages about the Maya API with C++ and Python. I’ll be adding to it more in the future. Check it out here. ...
Read more →GPU Blend Shapes
I wrote this last week. It’s a Maya blend shape deformer that runs on the GPU. The sample shown is a 30,000 vertex mesh with 1000 targets. It runs 32x faster than Maya’s blendShape node on a Geforce 230M notebook GPU. A 40,000 vertex mesh with 1500 targets ran 40x faster. ...
Read more →Python Workshop Notes
A few months ago, I taught a Python scripting workshop at my old school, Expression College, aimed at introducing students to the Python scripting language and using it in Maya. It was a one day workshop so everything was condensed and to the point. There’s no history of Python section or best practices section. The goal of the workshop was to get students familiar with Python so they could learn how to read and write basic scripts and also how to further their studies. I wrote a whole slew of notes to hand out to the students and ever since then, they’ve just been sitting on my computer…that is until now! I’ve ported over my notes onto my website and they are now free to view. You can find them here or in the Tutorials sections. ...
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