Torben Søttrup

tsMirrorPose

2011-09-13T22:52:00.002+02:00

Here is a script that will search for selected control names containing "L_" or "R_" and then transfer the values to the control on the opposite side. Left to right and vice versa.


global proc tsMirrorPose(){
    string $selected[] = `ls -sl`;
    if (!`size($selected)`){
        warning "tsMirrorPose: No objects selected.";
    }
    int $mirrorCount = 0;
    for ($each in $selected){
        string $keyableAttrs[] = `listAttr -r -w -k -u -v -m -s $each`;
        if (!`size($keyableAttrs)`){
            continue;    
        }
        string $mirrorObj = "";
        if (`gmatch $each "*L_*"`){
            $mirrorObj = substituteAllString($each, "L_", "R_");
        } else if (`gmatch $each "*R_*"`){
            $mirrorObj = substituteAllString($each, "R_", "L_");
        }
        if ((`size($mirrorObj)`) && (`objExists $mirrorObj`)){
            $mirrorCount++;
            for ($attr in $keyableAttrs){
                string $value = string(`getAttr ($each + "." + $attr)`);
                string $cmd = "setAttr (\"" + $mirrorObj + "." + $attr + "\") " + $value;
                catch(`eval $cmd`);
            }
        }
    }
    print("tsMirrorPose: " + $mirrorCount + " objects mirrored.");
}

Reset panel positions in Maya

2011-09-04T09:56:00.000+02:00

When you switch from a dual monitor setup to a single monitor setup Maya still insists on placing panels on the second monitor. This is really annoying so I tried to figure out some way to fix this. Here are a few options:

- You can delete (or edit) the file windowPrefs.mel in this folder:
mac users: /Users/yourUserNameHere/Library/Preferences/Autodesk/maya/20xx/prefs/
windows users: c:\documents and settings\yourUserNameHere\My documents\Maya\20xx\prefs\

- You can run this small MEL script:
global proc tsResetWindowPref(){
  string $panels[] = `getPanel -visiblePanels`;
  for ($panel in $panels){
    if (`panel -q -tearOff $panel`){
      if (!`gmatch $panel "scriptEditor*"`){
        deleteUI $panel;
      }
    }
  }
  windowPref -removeAll;
}
tsResetWindowPref();

- You can go to Maya preferences and choose "Interface" and uncheck "Remember size and position" and restart Maya.

tsNoiseAnim

2011-07-13T22:06:00.001+02:00

The script will create a new animation layer with noise/shake/jitter motion on the selected object. The object will get a new attribute that you can key anywhere from 0 to 1 to turn the weight of the noise effect up or down. The weight is connected to the weight of the animation layer containing the noise. To get rid of the noise just delete the noise animation layer.

tsNoiseAnim.mel

tsLazyBastard 2011.07.13 (Maya 2012 fix)

2011-07-13T21:57:00.001+02:00

Found out today that tsLazyBastard didn't work in Maya 2012. So here is a fixed version.

The problem is related to the "Default tangent type" section of the script. If you use the new "Auto" tangent type (not to be confused with the Auto-Tangent script) you will notice that no tangent button is highlighted in tsLazyBastard. I will fix it better later but for now this will at least let the script load without errors.

tsLazyBastard2011.07.13.zip

Create layers for each namespace/reference in a scene

2011-06-30T23:14:00.004+02:00

Here is a script that will create a display layer for each namespace/reference in a scene. It should be quite useful for animation scenes that has several characters.

Just run this script and it will create layers and assign objects to them.


string $namespaces[] = `namespaceInfo -listOnlyNamespaces`;
for ($each in $namespaces){
  if(($each != "UI") && ($each != "shared")){
    string $objs[] = {};
    $objs = `ls -assemblies -long ($each + ":*")`;
    string $layerName = `createDisplayLayer -noRecurse -empty -name ($each + "_layer")`;
    editDisplayLayerMembers -noRecurse $layerName $objs;
  }
}

tsLazyBastard 2011.05.16

2011-06-20T21:16:00.003+02:00

Here is the most recent version of the tsLazyBastard MEL script. It is meant to be the animator's swiss army knife. One (big) palette with the most useful animation tools I've found over the past years.

Download tsLazyBastard2011.05.16.zip here

Here's guidelines on how to install the script (and helper scripts):

You need to copy the tsLazyBastard.mel to your Maya script folder. If Maya is running you must restart it after copying.

In case you don't know where the Maya script folder is located then look for this folder:
mac users: /Users/yourUserNameHere/Library/Preferences/Autodesk/maya/20xx/scripts/
windows users: c:\documents and settings\yourUserNameHere\My documents\Maya\20xx\scripts\

Now launch Maya and open the script editor and type:
tsLazyBastard()
To create a shelf button select the text you typed and drag it to your shelf using the middle mouse button.

Done! ..well sort of done. Now you will have the basic functions available. But to use all the tools you also need to install some additional helper scripts.

The tsLazyBastard script is using a few other scripts for certain features. Therefore some features will not work until these scripts have been properly installed. tsLazyBastard will show you an error message if you try to use features that are dependant on scripts that have not been installed.

These scripts are needed for everything to work:

llShowAnimCurves
http://www.lluisllobera.com/MEL.html

autoTangent
http://www.comet-cartoons.com/maya.html

poseLib
http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/scripts-plugins/animation/c/poselib

zoomerate
http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/scripts-plugins/interface-display/c/zoomerator-mel

js_greasePencil_4
http://jasonschleifer.com/downloads/

cMotionTrailUI
http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/scripts-plugins/animation/c/cmotiontrail-mel

djRivet
http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/scripts-plugins/polygon/c/djrivet-mel--3

ml_arcTracer
http://morganloomis.com/wiki/tools.html#ml_arcTracer

Some general guidelines on how to install these scripts:

The MEL and/or PY files goes in this folder:
mac users: /Users/yourUserNameHere/Library/Preferences/Autodesk/maya/20xx/scripts/
windows users: c:\documents and settings\yourUserNameHere\My documents\Maya\20xx\scripts\

If the scripts uses icon files (such as js_greasePencil_4) they go in this folder:
mac users: /Users/yourUserNameHere/Library/Preferences/Autodesk/maya/20xx/prefs/icons/
windows users: c:\documents and settings\yourUserNameHere\My documents\Maya\20xx\prefs\icons\

Scripting

2011-06-03T12:07:00.003+02:00

I decided to change the purpose of this blog. So from now on it will be a source of miscellaneous scripts and tools I have developed in my sparetime. My focus will be developing scripts for Maya to improve animation workflow.

I have a few different script projects going on. The MEL script tsLazyBastard being the biggest of them. Other than that I have been working on tsRetiming which is supposed to speed up Maya's feedback when retiming shots in the viewport. More details will come along when I post the scripts on the blog.