addons

There several custom addons and scripts that I utilised throughout production to either make my workflow more efficient or allow me to do something unachivable normally.

Studio Library

Naturally, Studio library was a used extensively in order to speed up my work flow. From creating selection sets to building a pose library that I could refer back to and reuse, Studio Library was incredibly handy. Transferring animations from one scene to another was also important, such as importing walk cycles. There was one point in production where I accidently, began animating onto an out of date scene file. I was intending to add a lot of the minor animation details such as the Goliaths skirt, chains, face etc, but accidently started working on an older version. Thankfully, I was able to export that animation that I had done and reimport it into the most up to date file, saving me from having to re-do a lot of animation.

Studio Library Setup

FK/IK Switcher

I already mentioned this in my Rig Research but Kiel Figgins offers an FK/IK switcher for his rigs which was incredibly helpful throughout production. Unfortunately though, since my Sylvanas rig was not made by him, I was only able to use this addon for the Goliath. Thankfully, I found a solution for Sylvanas later down the line...

Proxy Meshes

Once again, mentioned in my Rig Research. The proxy meshes addon made creating proxy rigs an incredibly simple process. However as production progressed, I realised that evaluation methods were the result of my slow rigs and that the use of proxies was no longer necessary.

FBX_Animation_Baking

This was an Addon that I didn't use too much but was utilised in the research to fixing my face rig problem. It did help to identify the advanced skeleton face rig version and also provided the ability to convert follicles into joints, which came in handy with some of the detail on Sylvanas' bandolier

Advanced Skeleton 5

Advanced Skeleton was an important discovery when it came to fixing the issues with the Sylvanas rig. Initially it helped simplify the face rig but since it was the addon used to rig her, it also came in handy when it came to animating. It contained animation picker software which was easier than using studio library for selection sets and even more importantly, contained an FK IK switcher.

I hadn't considered the Kiel Figgins switcher wouldn't work with the Sylvanas rig so finding the FK/IK switcher in here was a stroke of luck.

Camera Zoomerator

The final addon that I used extensively was the camera zoomerator. For some reason, Maya doesn't allow you to zoom into your camera view and I was tired of struggling to see my poses clearly when animating.

So I went looking for a solution and found the camera zoomerator. It is such a simple tool but made my workflow just that slight bit easier.

convert rotation order

The custom rotation order addon was something I downloaded in order to solve my gimbal lock issues with the Sylvanas rig. It was really simple to use, and whilst I didn't use it often, it was a lifesaver in those few edge cases.