Red9 StudioPack v1.22 : PoseUI more support added

I've been tinkering away and think I have the first version of the PoseSaver up and running. I'm still in the process of changing the TextScroll UI to include thumbnail previews but the rest of the code is now running. I'm looking for testers to help get this nailed! There's a growing RMB menu bound to each pose entry also

Download as usual on my GoogleDocs:

Red9 Download Folder

Release v1.21 - changes to the presets

I've just uploaded a new build with many changes to the way the presets are handled and stored. This will mean that if you currently have any custom presets that you've made they may not load up in this build. I've had to do this so that the Pose format and the generic filter format are in sync with each other. This also potentially means you could read the hierarchy filter from a pose file directly (not yet supported in the UI)

I've also added a config writer for the UI itself so that the main Hierarchy and Pose tabs are all stored out. This is cool as it also means that if you have 2 Maya sessions open, changing the AnimUI in one session will get reflected in the AnimUI once opened in the second session. Seems like a far more controlled way of doing things rather than using the Maya OptVars.

As always, all feedback is welcomed

As always, the Download folder is here, in google docs RMB and click the Download option!

Red9 Download folder

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Red9 StudioPack v1.20 - PoseSaver

Well I've been tinkering away for a while with this and wanted to push a test version out with the new PoseSaver implemented. At the moment the UI is pretty basic, just a textScroll with some RMB menuItems but as I get more into this I'll do the usual icon support etc that everybody expects from a PoseSaver.

So what's different about this one? Well like the rest of the Animation UI this one runs off the Hierarchy filters, so from the selected root the hierarchy's are filtered and that result passed onto the poseSaver. The active filter (whats in the Hierarchy tab) is also stored internally in the PoseFile so the code uses the filter as it was when stored to reload the data. Maybe as an option I let you over-ride this? Also lets you load on selected nodes rather than passing through the filter if you only want to load the pose to certain controllers.

As with everything this is namespace independent, the short name of the nodes are used as a key in the pose dict (although the long path is used for the compare). I also store the index of the items in the hierarchy so that in the future you'll be able to map on index rather than name.

Finally something that I'm working on is the ability to load the pose IN-PLACE. Currently like most pose savers the data is loaded as it was stored so the pose will load in the same space as before. Now this is great, but what if you wanted to load that pose when the character is halfway up the stairs? So in the next version hopefully you'll be able to select a reference node (something you know is in the posefile) and the code will apply the offset between where that node is now, and where it was stored to the rest of the data. Basically shifting it in world space on the fly.

Anyway, all comments welcomed as usual. If you'd like to get involved drop me a mail

For the latest version go to the Download page and grab v1.2

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Red Studio Pack v1.10

I've just rolled out a new build of the pack which should show up in the Download folder and also on CreativeCrash.

This is a big release for the Animation and NodeSearch code. After doing more Vimeo demos I caught a number of bugs in the way the logic was running that didn't feel right so I've hopefully made it all a little clearer. I've fixed the HIK support in this release, I took it out in v1.09 as I was trying to find a neater way of dealing with all the HIK callbacks, all the Animation functions should now work as they would on any other rig system. Also added support for CharacterSets and SelectionSets which can now be used as the root selection for the Hierarchy filters. Makes it easy dealing with rigs where you have neat keying selectionSet groups as you can just select a source and destination set and run the Hierarchy filters and thus all the AnimationUI tools between those 2 sets.

See the Vimeo channel for the latest demos.

Happy Christmas!

Rig Handling: Another Day Another Video

Well hopefully this will explain the Rig Handling a little better within the systems. The main thing to understand is what and how the hierarchy filters in the Red9 pack do. These are extremely powerful filters that run in unison to pinpoint nodes within a hierarchy structure based on nodeTypes, nodeAttributes and nodeNames (this one is a RegEx search string). This is an intersection search. The idea is that to properly transfer data between complex rigs we need to be able to identify the nodes to be processed within those systems. Note that these filters will processes from a selected RootNode OR from CharacterSets and SelectionSets!

The behaviour of all the Hierarchy checkboxes in the main AnimationUI are controlled by these filters. There's a few presets to get you started, filters can be made, tested and stored. If you don't want to get too technical then for rigs just used the Standard Rig preset. This will filter the hierarchy for nurbsCurve based controllers.

This also goes through the various methods of transferring animation and pose data between animation rigs.

Big thanks to Nigel and the guys at MotionCircus for letting me test this out on one of their production rigs.

New Vimeo Video: Track and Stabilizer

Here's another video showing the Tracking and Stabilizer functionality of the AnimtionUI. This is a very powerful yet simple little tool for managing the interaction of nodes in Maya. Allows tracking at a Component level in Maya, so you can select a poly on a character and lock a controller to it's surface over time.

New Vimeo Channel

At last, I'm starting to do demo Videos and have just setup a Vimeo channel. Over the next few weeks I'll add many more hopefully! This first one demonstrates a few of the new features in v1.08.