(Animation) Max->Maya rigging general question
polycounter lvl 10
Hello, polycount.
I'm a a 3d generalist and character animator, and I'm at a point at which I finally decided to move from Max to Maya at least for character animation work.
I primarily worked with CAT in max, customising it a bit if needed. I'm familiar with custom rigging as well.
The main thing for me is to make max->maya transition as smooth as possible, so i'm trying to gather as much information as I can before I finally do it.
So, actually I have just a few questions, mostly related to CAT-pipeline purpose tools.
0. What approach should I use for rigging? Custom? Scripts? Plugins? HumanIK is cool, but it is only for bipedal characters, and I don't like how it works with graph editor... too much curves
I have a digital tutors subscription and watching rigging tutorials, learning path, but I feel like some things could be done better... What tutorial\course would you recommend? I'm familiar with basics of Maya rigging, setting up basic IK, parenting, constraints, controls, custom attributes.
1. Is there a way to export\import animation for a rig?
2. Is there a way to mirror pose\animation? Yep, my pipeline is not stable, and there was a task to mirror all character animations O_O of course it was for a game, so I could not just use Max's mirror. This is where CAT's mirror tool came really handy.
3. I know you can use HumanIK to retarget animations on a control rig, that sounds awesoma. But is it really so?
Or is max juts better if a pipeline is not solid?
I really hope for your help, thanks!
I'm a a 3d generalist and character animator, and I'm at a point at which I finally decided to move from Max to Maya at least for character animation work.
I primarily worked with CAT in max, customising it a bit if needed. I'm familiar with custom rigging as well.
The main thing for me is to make max->maya transition as smooth as possible, so i'm trying to gather as much information as I can before I finally do it.
So, actually I have just a few questions, mostly related to CAT-pipeline purpose tools.
0. What approach should I use for rigging? Custom? Scripts? Plugins? HumanIK is cool, but it is only for bipedal characters, and I don't like how it works with graph editor... too much curves
I have a digital tutors subscription and watching rigging tutorials, learning path, but I feel like some things could be done better... What tutorial\course would you recommend? I'm familiar with basics of Maya rigging, setting up basic IK, parenting, constraints, controls, custom attributes.1. Is there a way to export\import animation for a rig?
2. Is there a way to mirror pose\animation? Yep, my pipeline is not stable, and there was a task to mirror all character animations O_O of course it was for a game, so I could not just use Max's mirror. This is where CAT's mirror tool came really handy.
3. I know you can use HumanIK to retarget animations on a control rig, that sounds awesoma. But is it really so?
Or is max juts better if a pipeline is not solid?
I really hope for your help, thanks!
Replies
2. HumanIK has a mirroring function, custom Rigs dont. When you use Mark Jacksons fantastic Red9 Tools, you can set up your custom Rig mirrorable.
http://red9-consultancy.blogspot.de/
3. Yes it works like charm like in Motionbuilder, however, i havent tried to retarget onto a control rig. I retarget to an intermediate Mocap rig (bones only) with the same skeleton layout as my target rig, and use this to drive my rig with constraints, which can be baked after the retargeting.
https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Content/Tools/MayaRiggingTool/index.html