Ribbon Rigger
Recently, I have been using a fair amount of ribbons in my object rigs. To make this process more streamlined, I've created a ribbon rigger. So far, the script creates a ribbon with as many spans and follicles that you specify. It the evenly spaces the follicles along the ribbon and adds non-linear deformers that allow you to manipulate the ribbon in a variety of ways. As with most of my scripts, I'm currently adding more features and funtionality that will allow you to choose which deformers you want to include, etc.
Symmetry Script
The goal of this script was to create a tool that easily allowed me to check the symmetry of a mesh. While developing the script, more ideas slowly came about for different options by breaking out different pieces of information in the symmetry function. Some of these options are selecting selecting the center vertices of the mesh as well as selecting the vertices in the positive and negative X space (since the script assumes Z is forward). Future additions of the script include selecting the forward axis and being able to delete non-symmetrical vertices.
The original objective for this project was to create an arm rigging python script that creates a 3 skeleton setup that uses blendColors nodes in order to create an IK / FK Arm Blend. This project has grown into an auto rigger that allows for: arm and leg rigging including left and right options and other fun rigging toys! While it is not yet a full fledged character auto-rigger, the Auto Rigger will significantly reduce any animators rig time and contribute to a more pleasant rigging experience.
WIP Shots:
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| Result, IK and FK joints before python blend code is applied. |
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| After code execution, 3 blendColors nodes are created linking the FK and IK skeleton to the Result skeleton. It also connects the IK/FK Switch control to the blendColors nodes. |
So far I've created a two button rigger that creates the arm/leg rig with controls when clicked. I'm currently finishing translating the procedural MEL commands to python in order to create complete the process. Then I will expand the script into parts giving the user more options.
The main goal of this exercise was to create a functional name editor using python that included prefix, suffix and remove options as well as number labels (because I'm always numbering rig things).
Final result:
Basic script that I created using my new knowledge (at the time) of Python. The main goal of this exercise was to create a simple script that has a very friendly UI. Creating and modifying primitives is already relatively painless in Maya, so this allowed me to focus on UI design before diving into more complex functions for later scripts.
Here's the final result:
Tools page last updated: October 2015