New tools, new blog

Been spending a bunch of time reworking my old animation tools to make it much easier to add more interesting features, which resulted in a new repo on github

https://github.com/tb-animator/tbAnimTools

New blog in the works over at https://tbanimtools.blogspot.com/

multi directional space switching

I made this video ages ago but forgot to post about it;



Basically it's a method to add dynamic parenting to a rig whilst avoiding cycle errors. The parenting in this demo is a hard switch - no blending. It could be modified to use 2 spaces and a blend between them which might be cool, who knows.

One nice thing about the approach it uses it that there is only an overhead for each unique space, not per object that has space switching. Compared to blended parent or orient constraints this has improved rig playback considerably.

If you ask nicely I'll make a video demoing how to set it up.

Milkshake man rig for sale!

Hello hello, I made another body mechanics rig. A super sexy superhero! It's ready to export straight to unreal/unity with all deformation being joint driven for simplicity.

Check out a quick demo here:
Milkshake man - maya rig demo from Tom Bailey on Vimeo.

Get it here!, It's only $25! because why not that's why.

http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/Index.cfm/ID/1035442

Requests for other similar rigs are very welcome!

Peace,
Tom

Human rig for sale!

Hello!

I now have an ingame friendly human rig for sale! More info coming soon but for now here's a link to the turbosquid page.

 

http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/Index.cfm/ID/1003187

 It has an unreal/unity friendly bind skeleton, upper and lower limb stable roll joints, adjustable pivot feet, fk/ik blending and space switching!

2015 Animation Showreel

New demoreel! 

 It's nearly a new year so why not make a new showreel? Featuring Yoda! Would never have imagined I'd get to animate him let alone all his ingame animation :)



I plan on making some more in depth videos for General Grievous, Yoda and everyone else, but for now why not enjoy this boss battle? All gameplay anims and stage transition cutscene were made by myself. Although I didn't make the camera animation for the stage transition.
All Grievous animations were made in about 2 1/2 weeks! Good times! Fight starts at 30 seconds in.

maya tips! inview message help

Python inviewmessage command help:
Since maybe Maya 2014 there's been a groovy viewport feedback tool called inViewMessage.
You'll have seen it when using some default maya commands like hiding objects and changing the viewport mode. Overkill for hiding an object if you've actually used Maya before, but it's nice to look at!

ooo would you look at that!

Here's my messages script, it's a work in progress but has some info and warning commands
https://github.com/tb-animator/tbtools/blob/master/lib/tb_messages.py

turn on inview messages here

Before that all you could use was headsUpMessage;

It's true, nobody ever sees it

Modifying the default enum attribute values in Maya

So, when you add an enum attribute to an object in Maya you get a default pair of values "Green" and "Blue". I like to use enum attributes for switches on rigs, eg visibility toggles etc. It works great and you get the cool little popup menu. You can add as many options as you wish as well so it's nice and flexible like that.


But... Wouldn't it be nice to have the default values something more useable? Well, you can. So here's how I tracked down where they come from, so they can be changed. (This is my usual method for finding out how something core to Maya works)