Re: Maya Character Workflow

[Steve Parish]

Thanks Eric, some great advice there! Certainly going to check out
NGSkinTools.

Steve P

On Fri, Jun 30, 2017 at 6:14 PM, Eric Thivierge 
wrote:

> Hey Steve,
>
> Might not be as painless as you have experienced in the past but may not
> be as bad as one might expect as well. Check out NGSkinTools. It's worth it
> and the custom node can be removed to make the rig portable to those
> without the plugin. The referencing workflow you describe should work as
> well. However I'm not sure about the GATOR-like one click transfer but
> you'll probably be able to get super close. Make sure you don't use the
> Skin > Export / Import weight maps. Instead use the Deform > Export /
> Import weights. It is not texture based and I believe you'll be able to
> maintain fidelity between import / export a lot better.
>
> Hope that helps a bit.
>
> 
> Eric Thivierge
> http://www.ethivierge.com
>
> On Fri, Jun 30, 2017 at 3:42 PM, Steve Parish 
> wrote:
>
>> Sorry for the Maya question on a Softy board but I wondered if people
>> would mind sharing their character workflow.
>>
>> Working in advertising I'm having to make quick changes at all stages of
>> the pipeline and in Soft things were nice and nimble. In Maya I'm using
>> some scripts but things are very linear and slow.
>>
>> At the moment I'm modeling and rigging first, referencing in the rigged
>> model to animate, then exporting to alembic for render. If a modeling
>> change comes in, I re-model then copy the weights over from the old model
>> (I assume it works similarly to gator) and re-weight as needed. Then update
>> the reference model so the animation is preserved. Then animating and
>> exporting for render.
>>
>> Does this all seem logical? I felt like in Soft I could make quick
>> modeling changes and still keep the rigging because of the stack (to a
>> certain extent). I'm using tfsmooth_skin_weight (which is essential) but
>> wondered if there were any other essential scripts / techniques to help
>> make this process easier / quicker.
>>
>> Thanks
>> Steve_P
>>
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>> Softimage Mailing List.
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>> with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>>
>
>
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Re: Maya Character Workflow

[Eric Thivierge]

Hey Steve,

Might not be as painless as you have experienced in the past but may not be
as bad as one might expect as well. Check out NGSkinTools. It's worth it
and the custom node can be removed to make the rig portable to those
without the plugin. The referencing workflow you describe should work as
well. However I'm not sure about the GATOR-like one click transfer but
you'll probably be able to get super close. Make sure you don't use the
Skin > Export / Import weight maps. Instead use the Deform > Export /
Import weights. It is not texture based and I believe you'll be able to
maintain fidelity between import / export a lot better.

Hope that helps a bit.


Eric Thivierge
http://www.ethivierge.com

On Fri, Jun 30, 2017 at 3:42 PM, Steve Parish  wrote:

> Sorry for the Maya question on a Softy board but I wondered if people
> would mind sharing their character workflow.
>
> Working in advertising I'm having to make quick changes at all stages of
> the pipeline and in Soft things were nice and nimble. In Maya I'm using
> some scripts but things are very linear and slow.
>
> At the moment I'm modeling and rigging first, referencing in the rigged
> model to animate, then exporting to alembic for render. If a modeling
> change comes in, I re-model then copy the weights over from the old model
> (I assume it works similarly to gator) and re-weight as needed. Then update
> the reference model so the animation is preserved. Then animating and
> exporting for render.
>
> Does this all seem logical? I felt like in Soft I could make quick
> modeling changes and still keep the rigging because of the stack (to a
> certain extent). I'm using tfsmooth_skin_weight (which is essential) but
> wondered if there were any other essential scripts / techniques to help
> make this process easier / quicker.
>
> Thanks
> Steve_P
>
> --
> Softimage Mailing List.
> To unsubscribe, send a mail to softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com
> with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>
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Maya Character Workflow

[Steve Parish]

Sorry for the Maya question on a Softy board but I wondered if people would
mind sharing their character workflow.

Working in advertising I'm having to make quick changes at all stages of
the pipeline and in Soft things were nice and nimble. In Maya I'm using
some scripts but things are very linear and slow.

At the moment I'm modeling and rigging first, referencing in the rigged
model to animate, then exporting to alembic for render. If a modeling
change comes in, I re-model then copy the weights over from the old model
(I assume it works similarly to gator) and re-weight as needed. Then update
the reference model so the animation is preserved. Then animating and
exporting for render.

Does this all seem logical? I felt like in Soft I could make quick modeling
changes and still keep the rigging because of the stack (to a certain
extent). I'm using tfsmooth_skin_weight (which is essential) but wondered
if there were any other essential scripts / techniques to help make this
process easier / quicker.

Thanks
Steve_P
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To unsubscribe, send a mail to softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com with 
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