If you edit a polygon cube in Maya, moving the points around or extruding faces happens to the “shape”. They are a child node of the “transform” node (our Null node that holds translate, rotate and scale). Shape Nodes are a type of node that is responsible for displaying and holding the geometry and other icons like the locator cross and the cone on a light. See our Joint orient post for more details. Note that they are not a “bone” with length. They offer the most control and act almost like a Max list controller, combining what you would need to use 2 or 3 group transform nodes and some math operations in to a single node. Think of Joints as a transform node + orients (where they aim) and scale inversion (causes child joint to translate instead of scale when parent is scaled) etc. Joints are the most costly in Maya and have some diffrent attributes than regular transforms. (example the Maya distance tool uses the locators world location attribute to drive the distance measurement so you can parent them in to any hierarchy and still get their true measurement.) Similar to the expose transform tool in Max, but not as complex unless combined with other math nodes in Maya. You can then connect out their location in world space to other nodes. Locators can also output their world space location. They have some independent control over their size and location of the cross shape. Locators in Maya have some extra attributes in addition to just their transform node. (Note that Maya 2015+ allows you to mesh-combine with an option to also combine skin weights, allowing for some cool workflows and more flexibility to update models later) If you did wanted to have all your geo and just one skin cluster (for speed sake.the fewer skin clusters the better) you would have to do a mesh-combine operation first to put all the geometry shapes under a single transform node….like attaching mesh objects in Max. Maya has “Assets containers” that allow for similar functionally. These are not like the groups in Max that act like diffrent objects are combined in to one, locking the selection of the children. It creates a “Null” renames it to “Group” and automatically parents any nodes you had selected under the new “Group” node. If you group geometry together you are just parenting the nodes under a new transform node. You still have separate skin clusters for each piece of geometry, it isn’t like attaching many meshs together under an editPoly mesh object. ![]() Grouping transform nodes together before skinning doesn’t do anything extra for you because grouping isn’t doing to a mesh combine. ( in reality it is a bit more complex than this but lets start with that)Ĭreating a “group node” with nothing selected creates an empty node automatically named “Null” in Maya It is a simple basic node that exists in Maya…nothing fancy it is a pivot, that can be a child or a parent of other nodes. Think of them like a 3ds Max editPoly object with no geometry in it or a “Dummy” helper. Geometry type (poly/nurbs/shapes) = shapeNodesįor more details read over the node attributes and features in Maya Translation to Mayaįirst let’s look at some Max tools compared to Maya then we will talk details.Įxpose Transform = Locator + Maya math nodesĭummy = Null Transform (Group no children and no shapeNode)Įditable Poly Object = Transform + shapeNode There are more but simply understanding the makeup of your 3d objects goes a long way to understanding the software. ![]() How do you create a Dummy control in Maya? Is it best to group a bunch of objects together first before skinning them to a Joint? ![]() What are the accepted use (if any) of Joints(Bones) vs Locators(Point Helpers) and more importantly, when, where, and how to use Groups effectively? If you need more rigging focused training check out our ondemand classĬheck out our “Max to Maya Cross-Training” Ondemand class for character TDs Max speakĪrtists coming from Max ask us questions like ![]() To make it worse, often times the same name means something diffrent in both software but they almost do the same thing so let Rigging Dojo help you out. Character TD jobs require cross discipline understanding and something we get often are artists transitioning to Maya from Max and have a hard time with the way Maya approaches things like transforms.
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