Rig Tips

Maya UI Layout Elements Codes

October 23, 2011 0 comments

Layouts determine how all the UI elements in a window should be placed. All menus and windows you see in Maya are created in MEL using specific UI commands such as layout, slider, field, button, etc!

There should be many cases when you must be wondering or getting frustrated to figure out the right UI element or layout? For this reason Matt created a really useful resource on documentation for UI elements so that we can pick the right one without much of a hassle. Click Here for the PDF documentation! Here is the original post from Tech-Artist.org.

Also check out this documentation on creating MEL UI Layouts. Useful resource for UI creation. 🙂

Facial Animation Basics

October 19, 2011 0 comments

A step by step tips on creating fast and quality facial animation by DJ Nicke! These tips and techniques are really good resource for not just animators but also riggers to create quality, interactive animation friendly facial rigs that delivers what the animators are looking for! More tips on animation…

Tracker system by Igor Stefanovic

October 17, 2011 0 comments

Technical study of a realistic hand. The setup is based on tracker system by Igor Stefanovic currently working as a Character TD at DreamWorks Animation. Below you can check out the demo on implementation of the tracker tool on a full body setup.

This setup seems to be different from the traditional corrective shape, pose-space deformation or muscle based deformation. It seems like the setup is a bit like an intelligent set driven key (kind of) or some history dependent math connection applied on individual joints or controller binded to individual mesh component for smooth fleshy and realistic articulation. This is simply a really big milestone on rigging tools for realistic deformation. A good share by Igor, awesome job and deserves two thumbs up!

Tools based on Osipa by Liu

October 4, 2011 0 comments

Automated tools demo for facial setup based on blendshapes created by Liu derived from Jason Osipa style joystick based blendshape driven facial setup. This could be a good reference for anyone trying to recreate Osipa style setup quickly and efficiently using custom tools.