Thursday 18 April 2013

AnimSchool Picker, and it is Free!

Watch the demo video, and you will know how awesome it is!
animschool-picker-released

Using Custom modules in MotionBuilder


where to put your custom modules for each version.

In MotionBuilder2013
C:\Users\<UserName>\Documents\MB\2013-x64\config\PythonStartup

In MotionBuilder2012
C:\Program Files\Autodesk\MotionBuilder 2012 (64-bit)\bin\config\Python

In MotionBuilder2011
C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Autodesk MotionBuilder 2011 64-bit\bin\x64\python\lib\plat-win


http://docs.autodesk.com/MB/MB2013/ENU/MotionBuilder-SDK-Documentation/index.html?url=py_ref/index.html,topicNumber=py_ref_index_html

Naming Convention between Maya, 3ds Max, MotionBuilder

In Maya, you can't name objects with special symbol. If you consider or might have a chance using Maya, 3ds Max or MotionBuilder together. Please do care how you name your objects. especially for CS BIP. Since it auto name bones with "space".

And if you import FBX into Maya. It will auto rename your objects which have special symbol as "FBXASCXXXX". I think autodest should fix this "bug"!



Maya 物件名稱不支援 特殊符號 及 空白。利用FBX轉檔,這些不支援的名命都會被改成"FBXASCXXXX" 。若要考慮轉檔共用( 3ds Max <-> Maya <->MontionBuilder ) ,請記得要注意命名,像是cs bip ,預設名稱就有 空白。

Tuesday 2 April 2013

Setting environment variables in abxPicker

v0.3
I modified the source code. Feel free download it.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0DVxItnSepALVZFeEdEY2J2TEU/edit?usp=sharing

Now you don't have to cahnge  the image path in Bg Image of pickerNode.
The script read the image path in a relative way.
ex.


Note. For existed pickerNode, just remove the path like "C:/Users/<username>/Documents/maya"


=======================================================================
v0.2
I was wrong.
The only way to do this is changed the script

Add those lines after line 637 string $bgImage = `getAttr ($node+".bgImage")`;


if (startString($bgImage, 12)=="MAYA_APP_DIR"){
string $bgImageArray[];
$bgImageArray = stringToStringArray($bgImage, "\\");
$bgImage = stringArrayRemoveAtIndex(0, $bgImageArray);
$bgImage=`getenv "MAYA_APP_DIR"`+"\\"+ stringArrayToString($bgImageArray, "\\");
print $bgImage;
}


That is you can use a image path like "MAYA_APP_DIR\projects\projectA\sourceimages" in Bg Image of pickerNode

MAYA_APP_DIR = C:/Users/<username>/Documents/maya

But if your interested in setting environment variables you can still take a look the below link.
Setting environment variables using Maya.env

=======================================================================
v0.1
I use abxPicker as one of my rigging tools. Now I need to pass the files to others. But the path for the Bg Image is absolute path "C:\Users\JiaPei\Documents\maya\projects\projectA\sourceimages"
And it is not convenience to  re-assigned the Bg Image of the abxPicker in every files while they are in different computer. The way to solve this is creating a  Maya.env file

Add a line like this :
MAYA_Projs_PATH = %MAYA_APP_DIR%\projects

Change the Bg Image dir in the abxPicker as
"MAYA_Projs_PATH\Documents\maya\projects\projectA\sourceimages"
That is I don't need to worry the different of the username.