Maya Rigging A One-Way Street...Not Anymore
For years traditional single-direction constraining paradigms have been used to create rigs for animators. These single-direction constraint systems force a Character Technical Director to deliver a rig into the pipeline with that single direction state built in. This paradigm has proven to be quite limiting in the scope of the complex animations and characters required in film and games today. As Animators ask for more features to pose and interface with their characters the Character Technical Director community has had to maintain increasingly complicated rigs built on the foundation of these single-direction constraint systems. This is where the ExoSwitch Constraint system shows its versatility.
The ExoSwitch Constraint system is by nature a multi-directional constraining paradigm built to give the user the ability to determine "direction" on the fly. And to remove the problem of delivering a character into the pipeline in a pre-determined state, the constraint fully supports animating which transforms at any given time represent the drivers of the system.
The ExoSwitch Constraint system is by nature a multi-directional constraining paradigm built to give the user the ability to determine "direction" on the fly. And to remove the problem of delivering a character into the pipeline in a pre-determined state, the constraint fully supports animating which transforms at any given time represent the drivers of the system.
DYNAMIC POSING
At the heart of the ExoSwitch Constraint system is the ability to pose rigs intuitively. Our custom node acts as a dynamic switchboard operator to manage live relationships between nodes in the system as the user chooses which node(s) act as the driver and which ones are driven.
ANIMATION
Besides being an intuitive posing system the second design principle implemented in the ExoSwitch Constraint is animation. Animators have the ability to keyframe changing the driver(s) of the system. All of the "under the hood" aspects of switching drivers is handled, well...under the hood.
Autokey is supported. Animating and auto keying the switching between drivers is supported as well as animating the individual members of the constraint system.
Autokey is supported. Animating and auto keying the switching between drivers is supported as well as animating the individual members of the constraint system.
INTERACTIVE DRIVER SWITCHING
For interactive posing you can put an ExoSwitch Constraint system into a mode where the current driver is the current selection. As the selection changes...so does the driver. This mode allows the animator to pose a rig without having to find the constraint and manually change the driver.
MASK CONFIGURATIONS
Mask configurations allow you to setup complex motion relationships between constraint members. An unlimited number of mask configurations can be created on one constraint system giving you the ability to "rig" the constraint itself.
For example - a mask configuration can be created so that when the driver node of the system translates in Y the driven nodes (or maybe only one specific node) will not translate in Y. Therefore the translation in Y is "masked" for those nodes.
Learn more...
For example - a mask configuration can be created so that when the driver node of the system translates in Y the driven nodes (or maybe only one specific node) will not translate in Y. Therefore the translation in Y is "masked" for those nodes.
Learn more...
SPLIT TRANSFORMATION DRIVERS
The ExoSwitch Constraint has the ability to configure the system with different transforms acting as the translation and rotation driver.
LIVE OFFSETS
A core feature and design of the ExoSwitch Constraint is live offsets. Many systems that switch a rig between modes or drivers have an inherit offset given the nature of single-direction constraining. In the ExoSwitch Constraint the offset data is continually evaluated when switching driver nodes so that there is no drifting or popping when re-configuring the system.
NATIVE MAYA CONSTRAINT
The ExoSwitch Constraint has been constructed to be a native constraint within Maya.
This helps integrate the system and provides intuitive interfacing and workflow.
This helps integrate the system and provides intuitive interfacing and workflow.
NATIVE MAYA COMMAND
We provide a native MEL command along with the constraint node.
The command has flags to help execute creation, editing and querying actions on ExoSwitch Constraint systems. Check out the Command Page
The command has flags to help execute creation, editing and querying actions on ExoSwitch Constraint systems. Check out the Command Page
SUPPORTS PARALLEL & TREE HIERARCHIES
In designing the ExoSwitch Constraint we realized that there are many rigging techniques out there and some utilize parallel hierarchies and some tree/leaf hierarchies. We wanted to add freedom to allow any transform from any hierarchy to be added to the ExoSwitch Constraint.
By doing this the Character TD and Animator have true flexibility to decide on the fly or predetermine constraint members. You are not forced into a certain paradigm to create or interface with the system.
By doing this the Character TD and Animator have true flexibility to decide on the fly or predetermine constraint members. You are not forced into a certain paradigm to create or interface with the system.
CONSTRAINT SYSTEM STATUS UPDATES
To help streamline the ExoSwitch Constraint user workflow we have created a number of features to help deliver status updates on the system:
• Channel Box Attributes
• Attribute Editor with our AETemplate
• Shelf buttons on the ExoSwitch Constraint shelf
• Auto Driver Select Mode
• Channel Box Attributes
• Attribute Editor with our AETemplate
• Shelf buttons on the ExoSwitch Constraint shelf
• Auto Driver Select Mode
CONSTRAINT SYSTEM BUILDER
To help create constraint systems faster we have provided a UI where a user can declare the main parts of the system:
• Translation Driver
• Rotation Driver
• Driven Objects
• Translation Driver
• Rotation Driver
• Driven Objects
SUPPORTED MAYA VERSIONS & OPERATING SYSTEMS
2011
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2012
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