Rigging

Mr.sreenath was a Draughtsman in Civil Engineering by profession, till I request him to make some automation scripts in maya as he was doing in AutoCadd. He concentrated on that and acquired good knowledge of maya mel in a very short period. We both together developed complete character rigging scripts and other maya tools for regular use with reasonably good user interface.

sreedhar.G

ssRigTools

This include character rigging mel scripts, animator friendly tools for selecting controls, placing objects in reference files, animation exporting, pose creation animation importing etc, and file cleaning utility for Lighting, and creation of default lighting in the scene files (based on the current project settings) , render layer creation, and folder structure creation for project files in server.

And regarding the description of the scripts the scripts are very much self explanatory with descriptive variable names. One can understand the step by step procedure of the setup very easily by going through the script.

Installation :

Just Copy all the scripts in the User Maya Version Scripts Directory, copy all the icons folder in the User Maya Version preferences directory, Start Maya, and source “ssMenuCreateRigTools” in the script Editor Window. This will setup ssRigTools Shelves, Menu for you. Restart Maya and start using ssRigTools.

Limitations

The AutoRig script provided with this set works with the skeleton created our skeletonsetup script only only. It will not read user created skeletons unless otherwise the joint names matches.

The autobind (script to bind the mesh to the skeleton) considers only nurbs/poly meshes are present in the character as in normal cases most of the geometry is nurbs/poly.

Spaceswitching will not be created automatically and included as a separate script. The user can create his choice of spaceswitching.

Arm Setup

· A simple stretchy Arm with fk ik switching will be created.

· Finger attributes are also added if the finger joints are present in the scene.

· The finger attributes are added to the Finger Control Curve (hand shape one).

· Fkik switching and stretch attributes are added to the Arm Control Curve.

Leg Setup

· A simple stretchy Leg setup with fk ik switching will be created.

· Foot Roll attributes are also added to the Foot Control Curve

· Fkik switching and stretch attributes are added to the Foot Control Curve.

· Separate setup for a Quadruped Leg is provided.

Spine Setup

Stretchy Spine setup with twist will be created.

Option for No of Fk Controls is user choice. The default Fk controls are 2.

Neck

· Typical Fk rig creation for Neck

Space Switching

The Maximum no of switch objects is 4.

In the ui select the control for which space switch is to be created.

Select the switch controls in the next ones.

Type the Switch names in the names field.

Be sure to follow one order in selecting the switch objects and names.

Other Mel Scripts

· Joint Orientaion

· Control Curve Creator

· Object Renamer

· Object Color

· Headsup Display

· BlendShape Tools

· Facial Setup Gui

· Animation Import / Export

· Animation Library (In Progress)

Partial List Of Mel Scripts

ssAnimationExport.mel

ssAnimationExport_Face.mel

ssAnimationImport.mel

ssAnimationImport_Face.mel

ssAnimationSmoothAnimCurves.mel

ssAnimationTransfer01.mel

ssAnimationTransfer02.mel

ssAnimLibrary.mel

ssArmFingerSetup.mel

ssArmSetup.mel

ssAutoBindBiped.mel

ssAutoBindQuadruped.mel

ssAutoRigBiped01.mel

ssAutoRigQuadruped01.mel

ssBakeDynamicJointsInTheScene.mel

ssBlendShapesCreate.mel

ssBlendShapesCreateGui.mel

ssBlendShapesExtract.mel

ssBlendShapesMirror.mel

ssControlCleanUp.mel

ssControlCurves.mel

ssCreateFolderStructureMaya.mel

ssCreateFolderStructureOutput.mel

ssCreateLights.mel

ssCreateShaderAndAssign2dMap.mel

ssDeleteImportedReferencedNodes.mel

ssDynamicEars.mel

ssDynamicRope.mel

ssDynamicTail.mel

ssEyeSetup.mel

ssFaceSetupWithJoints.mel

ssFileCleanExport.mel

ssFileCleanLightLinkers.mel

ssFileCleanupScene.mel

ssFileSaveWithBoundingBox.mel

ssFkRig.mel

ssGrassGeneration.mel

ssHeadsUpDisplayDetails.mel

ssJointsOrient.mel

ssLegSetupBiped.mel

ssLegSetupQuadruped.mel

ssLightingTools.mel

ssMenuCreateMainMenu.mel

ssMenuCreateRigTools.mel

ssModellingCreateWheel.mel

ssMovePivotPoint.mel

ssNameSpaceRemover.mel

ssNeckSetup.mel

ssObjectColor.mel

ssObjectRename.mel

ssObjectTemplateUntemplate.mel

ssSelectCharacterControls.mel

ssSkeletonSetupBiped.mel

ssSpaceSwitch.mel

ssSpineAdvanced.mel

ssTongueSetup.mel

ssTransferUvsFromTextureModelToRigModel_SingleObject.mel