techniques for reusing control rigs in Maya

techniques for reusing control rigs in Maya

you will learn techniques for reusing control rigs in Maya to work more efficiently. Throughout the tutorial you will learn techniques for re-purposing rigs to save time in your character setup pipeline. We'll start by merging a completed rig into our character's scene. At that point, we will start modifying the rig to match the proportions of our character. Moving on from there, we will then add controls that are necessary to accommodate any new accessories that require controls.ted & Numbered List tips
Character Rigging In Maya Continued
Select the LHip joint, and then Shift Select the COG joint, now press P to parent the LHip to the COG Joint, a bone will appear between them : - 
Now do the same with the Left_Clavicle and Neck joint, and then again with the first joint on each of the fingers and the thumb and parent to the Left_Hand joint, you'll end up with something like this : -

Ok, we've now set up and parented all of our joints, now there's one last thing to do now before we've finished with the skeleton, and that's to Mirror our Joints from the Left Side over to the Right Side. Select the Left_Clavicle joint and then from the menu select Skeleton > Mirror Joint and open the options box, within the options, select YZ as the Mirror options and Orientation as the Mirror Function : -
Select Mirror, and you should now have the right arm set up, including the parented joint :-

Do the same now for the LHip and then again for the LReverse_Foot, that's it, we now have all of our joints mirrored across. We don't need our Local Rotation Axes displayed anymore, so select each joint one by one, and then issue the command DISPLAY > COMPONENT DISPLAY > LOCAL ROTATION AXIS, or press G to repeat the last command. Once you've done that to all the joints, open up the Outliner. We need to rename our joints that we have mirrored across, essentially we need to differentiate the two sides, so Left and Right is enough to do that, so rename all the mirrored joints so that they are R - Right related, as in

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basic HumanIK FullBodyIK and Retargeting in maya

basic HumanIK FullBodyIK and Retargeting 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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how Programming With HumanIK maya 2013

how Programming With HumanIK maya 2013

At work we're moving from a MotionBuilder pipeline to Maya, which I'm responsible for creating. One of the tasks on the list I was handed was to move animated takes out of MB and into Maya so that all exported files can be run through the same export steps, and also so that moving forwards animators would have the same tools for working on older animations as they will on files using my new rig.
I have Maya Creation Suite 2012 on my work machine, which is touted as being able to seamlessly transfer data between the included apps– Maya, MotionBuilder, and Mudbox. I haven't had need to open Mudbox yet, but in my limited testing so far the Human IK rigs never come through properly from MB to Maya and on the Maya side the HIK characterization gets broken. This means that to do any animation fixes or retargeting inside Maya, the characterization needs to be deleted and rebuilt. Also funny: the automatic naming templates in Maya don't always work, making recharacterization a tedious manual process. Keyed transforms (joints, etc.) and meshes come through just fine, however, with all skinning and materials in tact. Updating previously-sent objects did not.
Apart from all that, the first file I've been working on has 50 animations in it. I didn't relish the idea of converting all of them by hand, so I set about seeing what's possible on the scripting side.
The FBX import/export plugin comes with a number of commands for massaging how files are read in. A full list of the commands is on Autodesk's site. Note that the Python versions of these functions fail; I think they're being generated improperly at plugin load. Could be that I'm just not calling them properly; I didn't bug-hunt because I found doing the HIK post-import steps didn't work in Python, either.
I've written more MEL in the last two days than I have in the last four years, not that it's a lot of code!

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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animating HumanIK in maya

animating 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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Rendering Displacement Maps in maya and Ambient Occlusion

Rendering Displacement Maps in maya and Ambient Occlusion

I'm sure you all know how to use the automated create PSD network in Maya. In this tutorial I'll show you how to make it by hand in the hypershade.
Set-up
This tutorial assumes you have a basic knowledge of nodes and connections.

Also, a basic knowledge of Adobe Photoshop is required.

Open a file that you want to create an Adobe Photoshop network for.
Getting The UV Snapshots
You'll need these to represent the UVs on the texture map.

Step one - Select your model and open the UV editor by going to window>UV texture editor.

Step two - On the UV texture editor menu set, go to polygons>UV snapshot...

Step three - Leave the file in its default location; set the resolution to the size that you want your final texture map to be in pixels. The image format must remain a non-compressed format. Example: a JPeg format won't work. Click okay and you're done.
Creating The Adobe Photoshop File
First open Adobe Photoshop.

Step one - Go to file>new... Set the width and height to the same value used for the UV snapshot. Make sure the measurement is set to pixels; the rest of the attributes can remain at their defaults.

Depending on your requirments, you need to create a new layer for each attribute you want to texture map. Example: one for color, one for bump map, one for diffuser.

Step two - Go to layer>new>layer... Set the name of the layer to the name of the texture map. This is not required; it's for organization. Create all the layers for the texture maps that you intend to create.

PSD File Structure
When you load the file into Maya, Maya can't select each individual layer. What it can select is a group of layers from a file (this is done through a PSD file node). So in Adobe you must define a group for each texture map. You can have multiple layers inside the group.

Step one - Select a layer and go to layer>group layers. Change the name from group to the names of the texture map. Example, color, diffuser, transparency, etc. This is required. Maya will reference this group by its name.

Step two - Repeat step one until you've put all your maps in a group.

Step three - Save your file in your source images folder (documents/Maya/projects/current project (default)/source images/). Make sure you save it as a PSD file.
Importing The UV Snapshot
The UV snapshot tells you where the UVs are placed while texturing.

Step one - Don't close the already open Adobe Photoshop document we created, but go to file>open. Now we need to locate the UV snapshot we created. It will be in your documents/Maya/projects/current project (default)/images/OutUV.

Step two - With the new document open, go to layer>duplicate layer... Set the destination to the name of your saved Adobe file.

Step three - Close the new document and go back to the PSD file.

Step four - The UV snapshot will have a black background that we'll remove later. It cannot be inside any of the groups. If it is, drag it out. It needs to be on top of all the othe layers because we intend to paint underneath it so we don't paint over our UVs.

Step five - The UV snapshot has a black background to it that will not work because we can't see under it. To fix that, we'll use the background eraser tool.

If you can't see the tool, click on the eraser icon, hold, and wait for the menu to come out, then select "background eraser tool".

Step six - Set the background eraser to the settings in the image below.

Set the foreground color to white and the background color to black.

Now just erase the entire image. It may look like it's erasing all of it, but it's actually just erasing the black. The white lines won't show up against the white background; we'll fix that in a second.

Step seven - Go to layer>layer styles>color overlay. Set the color to the color of your choice.

Step eight - Since you don't want to accidently paint on the UV snapshot layer, click on the lock button to prevent the layer from being further edited.

Save the file.
Back to Maya.
Now that we've created our PSD file, time to load it into Maya. First we're going to need to open the hypershade. Go to window>rendering editors>hypershade.

Step one - On the left side of the hpershade, create Maya node, create the shader you intend to be using for you model. Example: Blinn, Lambert.

Step two - Under the create Maya node section, roll down to until you find the PSD file. Don't confuse this with the standard file node - there's a big difference. We'll explain that later.

Step three - Select it and open the attributes editor (window>attributes editor).

Step four - Click on the folder icon across from the text image name and load the PSD file you saved in your source image.

Step five - Set the "link to layer set" to the name of the group that you want this PSD file node to use. Example: color, etc.

Step six - Back in the hypershade middle mouse button drag and drop the PSD file node onto the shader.

Step seven - Select the appropriate connection to be made, example: if the PSD file node is linking to the color texture, it should connect to the color attribute of the shader.

Step eight - Create a new PSD file node. Select it, open the attributes editor and repeat steps 4 through 7, but change the link to layer set to a different group (example: bump) and, when connecting it to the shader, change the connection to what's appropriate for that texture.

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