Maya Channel Box Attributes (In world Space)

StephenVyas

I'm starting to mess around in maya again & It would be beneficial to me if i knew how to adjust the following...

How would I display a characters' Foot controller in it's 'world coordinates' within the channel box?
Currently the controller has zero'd out translations. I assume it's in a local/object space.

Edit: Think i found a solution @ http://pozeststar.blogspot.ca/2012/02/mel-script-unfreezing-transformations.html
I'll attempt it tomorrow morning...

antweiler

Almost every rig that is done in Maya has zeroed out controllers for a good reason.
That is, when you set your channels to zero, the controller will go to its default position. The channel box isnt there to edit world space coordinates. What you can easily do is to create another locator in worldspace, and use a parent constraint to drive your local space controller, you can bake the animation to the controller, when you dont need the locator anymore

JohnnyRaptor

without any more information, heres an easy way to get the coordinates back,

create a locator or group and snap it to the foot controller pivot, parent the foot controller to the locator/group and freeze the transforms on the foot controller, then unparent it and it should now have the world coordinates.

but what antweiler is saying is true, so keep that in mind,

monster

Like the other guys here said, I don't recommend modifying the rig. You'll appreciate the frozen position later. But it is a hassle coming from Max, where toggling local/worlds is in a drop down menu.

If you activate the move, AND THEN click to select on object the world space position will be displayed in the status bar at the bottom. It'll say something like: "TranslateXYZ(cm): XXX XXXX XXX"



Also, if you want to move something to a particular location, but don't need to know the value you can type in the value at the end of the main toolbar. (Not shelf)



If you want to do it with script, you can query the objects pivot position:

getAttr pCube1.rotatePivot;

StephenVyas

Ahh nice, this is perfect! Thanks Antweiler, Johnny , and Monster
You guys are awesome :thumbup:

StephenVyas

Another small question to tag onto the end of this... Probably just something I'll have to learn to live with in maya.. but I'll ask anyways.

If I grab an ik controller(Left hand), and shift select ... the hips... Can I not rotate both of these objects around the manipulator (At the hips) while using the World Coordinates system and therefore setting a new keyframe position on the Lefthand IK .. with a nice arcing action?

What happens once I do this is.. the IK on the left hand has no recollection of it's previous keyframe translation position in space. Its translation space is now positioned to the new keyframe and there is no linear arcing between the two keyframes. no movement whatsoever.


I hope I'm communicating this clearly. For me this is an attempt to manipulate the rig at faster pace than just selecting each component one at a time.


[Edit: Nevermind, I created a work around that will be sufficient]