Hi Sofronis, Yeah, its perfectly acceptable as far as Maya goes. Even for the conditional nodes, you'll need to compare colors--think of it as a triple scalar comparison node :P The nodes in Maya do evaluate much faster than constraints. Expressions should be a last resort; they are more often than not much slower (think scop in Soft). One thing to watch out for is the sometimes helpful, sometime not helpful automatically inserted Unit conversion node asMaya will put a value in that it thinks that you need. All of a sudden your graph will convert to radians when you still need to be working in degrees.
Provided that you are in a situation where you have to use a Maya only solution, a node based rig is worth it as it will evaluate faster--it is your best option. Unfortunately one side effect is that the channel bar becomes littered with useless node information. It frightens and confuses animators. That aside, I have made many Maya rigs with nodes as the primary "gloo." They are stable and work much faster. If you do not have to stay purely inside of Maya, Fabric Splice may be much more palatable and sensible to work with. Cheers, -=Eric P.S. On a Humorous note, I agree with you; there is a lot in Maya that is, as you say, "I just wished they would name it something sensible. No one would think this was the node they were looking for!" Maya is appropriately named: http://vaniquotes.org/wiki/Maya_means_insanity._Another_meaning_of_maya_means_insanity._Just_like_when_a_man_becomes_insane,_that_is_false._It_is_expected_that_he_should_not_be_insane._By_treatment_he_is_brought_again_to_his_original_consciousness On Wed, Dec 10, 2014 at 5:53 AM, Sofronis Efstathiou < [email protected]> wrote: > Hi all, > > > > I’m looking at some options and alternatives for creating a leg IK>FK rig > setup with blending options in Maya. Has anyone seen and used this method - > http://youtu.be/wDy6GQjPpp0?t=8m16s - they use a BlendColours node on > each of the respective joints. It seems like it will work – but I have a > real problem with using a node in Maya that was built for colour blending > to control rotational blends…I guess it’s an adaptable node (I just wished > they would name it something sensible. No one would think this was the node > they were looking for!) > > > > Anyway, any advice appreciated – as well as any strong alternatives. > > > > Cheers > > > > Sofronis (Saf) Efstathiou > > Postgraduate Framework Leader and BFX Competition & Festival Director > > Computer Animation Academic Group > > *National Centre for Computer Animation* > > > Email: [email protected] > > > > BU is a Disability Two Ticks Employer and has signed up to the Mindful > Employer charter. Information about the accessibility of University > buildings can be found on the BU DisabledGo webpages > <http://www.disabledgo.com/en/org/bournemouth-university> > > This email is intended only for the person to whom it is addressed and may > contain confidential information. If you have received this email in error, > please notify the sender and delete this email, which must not be copied, > distributed or disclosed to any other person. > > Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not > necessarily represent those of Bournemouth University or its subsidiary > companies. Nor can any contract be formed on behalf of the University or > its subsidiary companies via email. > > -- -=T=-
