Re: Transferring shape keys
Eric, if I understand you correctly, that's honestly what I'd rather do. Seems so much simpler to leave the shape keys in place and simply update whatever data they contain. But I simply don't know how to script this. I just haven't done much scripting with mesh attributes like this. How do I get the positions attribute from one shape key and apply it to another? On 6/17/2015 6:21 PM, Eric Thivierge wrote: Hey Tim, Any reason you're not using scripting to regenerate these and not just use copy / paste? You can script the creation of the shape nodes and then copy the positions attribute over. Another thing you could do is apply ICE Ops to copy the values of shapes on one mesh to another. Don't forget that ICE isn't always for Live operators, but you can design ops that are only there for utilities and then get frozen off. Especially when you use the ApplyICEOp() command which takes a compounds execute port (it has to have one) and connects it directly and then you can script the hook ups of get data nodes or you can fill in the reference inputs that point to the right objects / properties. You can update data in shape keys through scripting or ICE. Eric T. Eric Thivierge http://www.ethivierge.com On Wed, Jun 17, 2015 at 3:48 PM, Tim Crowson tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com mailto:tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com wrote: I'm working on a tool for updating shapeKeys inside a mesh's Shape cluster. I can't use GATOR to transfer the shapes (that creates a new Shape cluster anyway, which I don't want). My original intent was to: 1. compare my rig model with my shapes model, storing any animation or expressions on shape keys 2. delete shape keys out of my rig model 3. copy over the updated shape keys (same names) from the shapes model 4. re-apply anim/expressions The problem I'm having is between steps 2 and 3. I am not sure what the best method is for transferring shape keys. GATOR just dumps the whole lot into a new Shape cluster, which I don't want. So I'm falling back on Application.CopyPaste(). Now this works fine when dragging and dropping via the mouse. But for some reason, when firing the exact same command in code, it bombs and throws an error on that command. However, if instead of deleting specific shape keys, I delete the entire parent Shape cluster, then CopyPaste() works just fine. It's almost like the CopyPaste() command fails when fired from code AND a Shape cluster already exists. But clearly, I can't just delete the Shape cluster, as we might have custom shapes inside it that aren't in whatever model we're sourcing from for the update.. Any ideas? Honestly this would all be much easier (I think) if there was a way to update point data inside a shape key, but I can't tell if that's possible or not, hence my current method of deleting and re-applying anim/expressions. -- *Tim Crowson */Lead CG Artist/ *Magnetic Dreams, Inc. *2525 Lebanon Pike, Bldg C, Suite 101, Nashville, TN 37214 *Ph* 615.885.6801 tel:615.885.6801 | *Fax* 615.889.4768 tel:615.889.4768 | www.magneticdreams.com http://www.magneticdreams.com tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com mailto:tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com / / -- Signature
Re: Transferring shape keys
If you get to the shape node through the object model you can then access the ClusterProperty (your shape key property that is on the cluster). From there its the .Elements.Array that stores the values. It'll return a Tuple of Tuples. 1 tuple per axis that will store the shape's delta from the base shape. A simple script to do this is: # Python sel = Application.Selection sel(1).Elements.Array = sel(0).Elements.Array However Python won't be efficient with heavy meshes. Thus why i think ICE would be a better solution. Through ICE you'd pull in the shape properties and connect their positions attributes. Lastly to note, this also applies to weight maps as well. Eric T. On Thursday, June 18, 2015 9:33:33 AM, Tim Crowson wrote: Eric, if I understand you correctly, that's honestly what I'd rather do. Seems so much simpler to leave the shape keys in place and simply update whatever data they contain. But I simply don't know how to script this. I just haven't done much scripting with mesh attributes like this. How do I get the positions attribute from one shape key and apply it to another? On 6/17/2015 6:21 PM, Eric Thivierge wrote: Hey Tim, Any reason you're not using scripting to regenerate these and not just use copy / paste? You can script the creation of the shape nodes and then copy the positions attribute over. Another thing you could do is apply ICE Ops to copy the values of shapes on one mesh to another. Don't forget that ICE isn't always for Live operators, but you can design ops that are only there for utilities and then get frozen off. Especially when you use the ApplyICEOp() command which takes a compounds execute port (it has to have one) and connects it directly and then you can script the hook ups of get data nodes or you can fill in the reference inputs that point to the right objects / properties. You can update data in shape keys through scripting or ICE. Eric T. Eric Thivierge http://www.ethivierge.com On Wed, Jun 17, 2015 at 3:48 PM, Tim Crowson tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com mailto:tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com wrote: I'm working on a tool for updating shapeKeys inside a mesh's Shape cluster. I can't use GATOR to transfer the shapes (that creates a new Shape cluster anyway, which I don't want). My original intent was to: 1. compare my rig model with my shapes model, storing any animation or expressions on shape keys 2. delete shape keys out of my rig model 3. copy over the updated shape keys (same names) from the shapes model 4. re-apply anim/expressions The problem I'm having is between steps 2 and 3. I am not sure what the best method is for transferring shape keys. GATOR just dumps the whole lot into a new Shape cluster, which I don't want. So I'm falling back on Application.CopyPaste(). Now this works fine when dragging and dropping via the mouse. But for some reason, when firing the exact same command in code, it bombs and throws an error on that command. However, if instead of deleting specific shape keys, I delete the entire parent Shape cluster, then CopyPaste() works just fine. It's almost like the CopyPaste() command fails when fired from code AND a Shape cluster already exists. But clearly, I can't just delete the Shape cluster, as we might have custom shapes inside it that aren't in whatever model we're sourcing from for the update.. Any ideas? Honestly this would all be much easier (I think) if there was a way to update point data inside a shape key, but I can't tell if that's possible or not, hence my current method of deleting and re-applying anim/expressions. -- *Tim Crowson */Lead CG Artist/ *Magnetic Dreams, Inc. *2525 Lebanon Pike, Bldg C, Suite 101, Nashville, TN 37214 *Ph* 615.885.6801 tel:615.885.6801 | *Fax* 615.889.4768 tel:615.889.4768 | www.magneticdreams.com http://www.magneticdreams.com tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com mailto:tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com / / -- Signature
Re: Transferring shape keys
Yeah I see what you're saying about Elements.Array being a bit sluggish. Doesn't seem to take much to slow it down. Really appreciate your help in this... anyone of these options will save me a lot of headaches. Thanks! -Tim On 6/18/2015 9:03 AM, Eric Thivierge wrote: As a last addition to this, it's also worth mentioning you can query ICEAttribute values directly from scripting too using the ICEAttribute.DataArray and you may be able to use that more efficiently than the Elements.Array Eric T On 6/18/2015 9:49 AM, Eric Thivierge wrote: If you get to the shape node through the object model you can then access the ClusterProperty (your shape key property that is on the cluster). From there its the .Elements.Array that stores the values. It'll return a Tuple of Tuples. 1 tuple per axis that will store the shape's delta from the base shape. A simple script to do this is: # Python sel = Application.Selection sel(1).Elements.Array = sel(0).Elements.Array However Python won't be efficient with heavy meshes. Thus why i think ICE would be a better solution. Through ICE you'd pull in the shape properties and connect their positions attributes. Lastly to note, this also applies to weight maps as well. Eric T. On Thursday, June 18, 2015 9:33:33 AM, Tim Crowson wrote: Eric, if I understand you correctly, that's honestly what I'd rather do. Seems so much simpler to leave the shape keys in place and simply update whatever data they contain. But I simply don't know how to script this. I just haven't done much scripting with mesh attributes like this. How do I get the positions attribute from one shape key and apply it to another? On 6/17/2015 6:21 PM, Eric Thivierge wrote: Hey Tim, Any reason you're not using scripting to regenerate these and not just use copy / paste? You can script the creation of the shape nodes and then copy the positions attribute over. Another thing you could do is apply ICE Ops to copy the values of shapes on one mesh to another. Don't forget that ICE isn't always for Live operators, but you can design ops that are only there for utilities and then get frozen off. Especially when you use the ApplyICEOp() command which takes a compounds execute port (it has to have one) and connects it directly and then you can script the hook ups of get data nodes or you can fill in the reference inputs that point to the right objects / properties. You can update data in shape keys through scripting or ICE. Eric T. Eric Thivierge http://www.ethivierge.com On Wed, Jun 17, 2015 at 3:48 PM, Tim Crowson tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com mailto:tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com wrote: I'm working on a tool for updating shapeKeys inside a mesh's Shape cluster. I can't use GATOR to transfer the shapes (that creates a new Shape cluster anyway, which I don't want). My original intent was to: 1. compare my rig model with my shapes model, storing any animation or expressions on shape keys 2. delete shape keys out of my rig model 3. copy over the updated shape keys (same names) from the shapes model 4. re-apply anim/expressions The problem I'm having is between steps 2 and 3. I am not sure what the best method is for transferring shape keys. GATOR just dumps the whole lot into a new Shape cluster, which I don't want. So I'm falling back on Application.CopyPaste(). Now this works fine when dragging and dropping via the mouse. But for some reason, when firing the exact same command in code, it bombs and throws an error on that command. However, if instead of deleting specific shape keys, I delete the entire parent Shape cluster, then CopyPaste() works just fine. It's almost like the CopyPaste() command fails when fired from code AND a Shape cluster already exists. But clearly, I can't just delete the Shape cluster, as we might have custom shapes inside it that aren't in whatever model we're sourcing from for the update.. Any ideas? Honestly this would all be much easier (I think) if there was a way to update point data inside a shape key, but I can't tell if that's possible or not, hence my current method of deleting and re-applying anim/expressions. -- *Tim Crowson */Lead CG Artist/ *Magnetic Dreams, Inc. *2525 Lebanon Pike, Bldg C, Suite 101, Nashville, TN 37214 *Ph* 615.885.6801 tel:615.885.6801 | *Fax* 615.889.4768 tel:615.889.4768 | www.magneticdreams.com http://www.magneticdreams.com tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com mailto:tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com / / -- Signature -- Signature *Tim Crowson */Lead CG Artist/ *Magnetic Dreams, Inc. *2525 Lebanon Pike, Bldg C, Suite 101, Nashville, TN 37214 *Ph* 615.885.6801 | *Fax* 615.889.4768 | www.magneticdreams.com tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com /Confidentiality Notice: This email, including attachments, is confidential
Re: Transferring shape keys
As a last addition to this, it's also worth mentioning you can query ICEAttribute values directly from scripting too using the ICEAttribute.DataArray and you may be able to use that more efficiently than the Elements.Array Eric T On 6/18/2015 9:49 AM, Eric Thivierge wrote: If you get to the shape node through the object model you can then access the ClusterProperty (your shape key property that is on the cluster). From there its the .Elements.Array that stores the values. It'll return a Tuple of Tuples. 1 tuple per axis that will store the shape's delta from the base shape. A simple script to do this is: # Python sel = Application.Selection sel(1).Elements.Array = sel(0).Elements.Array However Python won't be efficient with heavy meshes. Thus why i think ICE would be a better solution. Through ICE you'd pull in the shape properties and connect their positions attributes. Lastly to note, this also applies to weight maps as well. Eric T. On Thursday, June 18, 2015 9:33:33 AM, Tim Crowson wrote: Eric, if I understand you correctly, that's honestly what I'd rather do. Seems so much simpler to leave the shape keys in place and simply update whatever data they contain. But I simply don't know how to script this. I just haven't done much scripting with mesh attributes like this. How do I get the positions attribute from one shape key and apply it to another? On 6/17/2015 6:21 PM, Eric Thivierge wrote: Hey Tim, Any reason you're not using scripting to regenerate these and not just use copy / paste? You can script the creation of the shape nodes and then copy the positions attribute over. Another thing you could do is apply ICE Ops to copy the values of shapes on one mesh to another. Don't forget that ICE isn't always for Live operators, but you can design ops that are only there for utilities and then get frozen off. Especially when you use the ApplyICEOp() command which takes a compounds execute port (it has to have one) and connects it directly and then you can script the hook ups of get data nodes or you can fill in the reference inputs that point to the right objects / properties. You can update data in shape keys through scripting or ICE. Eric T. Eric Thivierge http://www.ethivierge.com On Wed, Jun 17, 2015 at 3:48 PM, Tim Crowson tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com mailto:tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com wrote: I'm working on a tool for updating shapeKeys inside a mesh's Shape cluster. I can't use GATOR to transfer the shapes (that creates a new Shape cluster anyway, which I don't want). My original intent was to: 1. compare my rig model with my shapes model, storing any animation or expressions on shape keys 2. delete shape keys out of my rig model 3. copy over the updated shape keys (same names) from the shapes model 4. re-apply anim/expressions The problem I'm having is between steps 2 and 3. I am not sure what the best method is for transferring shape keys. GATOR just dumps the whole lot into a new Shape cluster, which I don't want. So I'm falling back on Application.CopyPaste(). Now this works fine when dragging and dropping via the mouse. But for some reason, when firing the exact same command in code, it bombs and throws an error on that command. However, if instead of deleting specific shape keys, I delete the entire parent Shape cluster, then CopyPaste() works just fine. It's almost like the CopyPaste() command fails when fired from code AND a Shape cluster already exists. But clearly, I can't just delete the Shape cluster, as we might have custom shapes inside it that aren't in whatever model we're sourcing from for the update.. Any ideas? Honestly this would all be much easier (I think) if there was a way to update point data inside a shape key, but I can't tell if that's possible or not, hence my current method of deleting and re-applying anim/expressions. -- *Tim Crowson */Lead CG Artist/ *Magnetic Dreams, Inc. *2525 Lebanon Pike, Bldg C, Suite 101, Nashville, TN 37214 *Ph* 615.885.6801 tel:615.885.6801 | *Fax* 615.889.4768 tel:615.889.4768 | www.magneticdreams.com http://www.magneticdreams.com tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com mailto:tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com / / -- Signature
Re: Transferring shape keys
The reason it's slow is because you're accessing the ClusterProperties through the selection list triggering additional cascading callbacks. If you use direct references to the clusterproperty objects, copying the data will go much faster. The GridData object is useful here as it can make coding simpler while abstracting away from the overhead of Python. There's also no need to use ICE for this task: example (JScript): var oPointPositionData = XSIFactory.CreateGridData(); oPointPositionData.ColumnCount = 3; var oSourceClusterProperty = Selection(0); var oTargetClusterProperty = Selection(1); // Copy point positions from source cluster property oPointPositionData.Data = oSourceClusterProperty.Elements.Array; // Paste point positions to target cluster property oTargetClusterProperty.Elements.Array = oPointPositionData.Data; This, of course, assumes point counts between source and target cluster properties are identical. Matt Date: Thu, 18 Jun 2015 09:49:13 -0400 From: Eric Thivierge ethivie...@hybride.com Subject: Re: Transferring shape keys To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com If you get to the shape node through the object model you can then access the ClusterProperty (your shape key property that is on the cluster). From there its the .Elements.Array that stores the values. It'll return a Tuple of Tuples. 1 tuple per axis that will store the shape's delta from the base shape. A simple script to do this is: # Python sel = Application.Selection sel(1).Elements.Array = sel(0).Elements.Array However Python won't be efficient with heavy meshes. Thus why i think ICE would be a better solution. Through ICE you'd pull in the shape properties and connect their positions attributes. Lastly to note, this also applies to weight maps as well. Eric T. On Thursday, June 18, 2015 9:33:33 AM, Tim Crowson wrote: Eric, if I understand you correctly, that's honestly what I'd rather do. Seems so much simpler to leave the shape keys in place and simply update whatever data they contain. But I simply don't know how to script this. I just haven't done much scripting with mesh attributes like this. How do I get the positions attribute from one shape key and apply it to another? On 6/17/2015 6:21 PM, Eric Thivierge wrote: Hey Tim, Any reason you're not using scripting to regenerate these and not just use copy / paste? You can script the creation of the shape nodes and then copy the positions attribute over. Another thing you could do is apply ICE Ops to copy the values of shapes on one mesh to another. Don't forget that ICE isn't always for Live operators, but you can design ops that are only there for utilities and then get frozen off. Especially when you use the ApplyICEOp() command which takes a compounds execute port (it has to have one) and connects it directly and then you can script the hook ups of get data nodes or you can fill in the reference inputs that point to the right objects / properties. You can update data in shape keys through scripting or ICE. Eric T. Eric Thivierge http://www.ethivierge.com On Wed, Jun 17, 2015 at 3:48 PM, Tim Crowson tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com mailto:tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com wrote: I'm working on a tool for updating shapeKeys inside a mesh's Shape cluster. I can't use GATOR to transfer the shapes (that creates a new Shape cluster anyway, which I don't want). My original intent was to: 1. compare my rig model with my shapes model, storing any animation or expressions on shape keys 2. delete shape keys out of my rig model 3. copy over the updated shape keys (same names) from the shapes model 4. re-apply anim/expressions The problem I'm having is between steps 2 and 3. I am not sure what the best method is for transferring shape keys. GATOR just dumps the whole lot into a new Shape cluster, which I don't want. So I'm falling back on Application.CopyPaste(). Now this works fine when dragging and dropping via the mouse. But for some reason, when firing the exact same command in code, it bombs and throws an error on that command. However, if instead of deleting specific shape keys, I delete the entire parent Shape cluster, then CopyPaste() works just fine. It's almost like the CopyPaste() command fails when fired from code AND a Shape cluster already exists. But clearly, I can't just delete the Shape cluster, as we might have custom shapes inside it that aren't in whatever model we're sourcing from for the update.. Any ideas? Honestly this would all be much easier (I think) if there was a way to update point data inside a shape key, but I can't tell if that's possible or not, hence my current method of deleting and re-applying anim/expressions. -- *Tim Crowson */Lead CG Artist/ *Magnetic Dreams, Inc
Re: Transferring shape keys
Hey Tim, Any reason you're not using scripting to regenerate these and not just use copy / paste? You can script the creation of the shape nodes and then copy the positions attribute over. Another thing you could do is apply ICE Ops to copy the values of shapes on one mesh to another. Don't forget that ICE isn't always for Live operators, but you can design ops that are only there for utilities and then get frozen off. Especially when you use the ApplyICEOp() command which takes a compounds execute port (it has to have one) and connects it directly and then you can script the hook ups of get data nodes or you can fill in the reference inputs that point to the right objects / properties. You can update data in shape keys through scripting or ICE. Eric T. Eric Thivierge http://www.ethivierge.com On Wed, Jun 17, 2015 at 3:48 PM, Tim Crowson tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com wrote: I'm working on a tool for updating shapeKeys inside a mesh's Shape cluster. I can't use GATOR to transfer the shapes (that creates a new Shape cluster anyway, which I don't want). My original intent was to: 1. compare my rig model with my shapes model, storing any animation or expressions on shape keys 2. delete shape keys out of my rig model 3. copy over the updated shape keys (same names) from the shapes model 4. re-apply anim/expressions The problem I'm having is between steps 2 and 3. I am not sure what the best method is for transferring shape keys. GATOR just dumps the whole lot into a new Shape cluster, which I don't want. So I'm falling back on Application.CopyPaste(). Now this works fine when dragging and dropping via the mouse. But for some reason, when firing the exact same command in code, it bombs and throws an error on that command. However, if instead of deleting specific shape keys, I delete the entire parent Shape cluster, then CopyPaste() works just fine. It's almost like the CopyPaste() command fails when fired from code AND a Shape cluster already exists. But clearly, I can't just delete the Shape cluster, as we might have custom shapes inside it that aren't in whatever model we're sourcing from for the update.. Any ideas? Honestly this would all be much easier (I think) if there was a way to update point data inside a shape key, but I can't tell if that's possible or not, hence my current method of deleting and re-applying anim/expressions. -- *Tim Crowson **Lead CG Artist* *Magnetic Dreams, Inc. *2525 Lebanon Pike, Bldg C, Suite 101, Nashville, TN 37214 *Ph* 615.885.6801 | *Fax* 615.889.4768 | www.magneticdreams.com tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com
