Share your secret weapon...!

#461

whats MMB slide

#462

Middle Mouse Button

#463

Roadkill:

http://www.vimeo.com/8707453

#464

RoadKill Pro is even better. It’s integrated directly into Maya and makes UVing a snap!! I call UVing “toilet cleaning of 3D”, but this little tool makes it fun:)

#465

Not sure if it has already been mentioned but I just recovered that by drag/dropping a light or a camera into the viewport it automatically switches to look-through-selected.

Not really a secret weapon but I thought this would be the best thread to mention it.

#466

So, I know of a few tools that when I discovered them, it blew my mind…
maybe they will be useful to you.

say you have been blocking out a scene, and you have a low poly tree, and you use it all around your scene, maybe a hundred times.

Next, you take that tree, and without Freezing transforms, or moving the pivot, res it up, and make it cool. Now there’s that small task of putting it in the place of ALL your old Tree’s…

Not fun right?

There is a tool for that!
modify > replace objects
(it uses the transforms of your previous meshes, so don’t delete them! it can trace back translation, rotation, and scale.) Just select all your originals, then shift select the new one, and hit replace.

Also, check out the modify > snap together tool, no words describe how useful or how many times I’ve used it.

as far as the hypershade goes, I love it all, but my most useful is the remap rgb to hsv. I most of the time use one texture, and use this to get my spec, bump, and diffuse information out of just one texture! saves on memory for rendering, and speeds updating those files up.
Update the original, and update them all.

anyways, there was 31 pages and I didn’t read all of these, hope I didn’t repeat anything!

great thread, and good luck.

#467

:deal: How to make a custom tear in maya using ncloth. :deal:
:deal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sj_FTXeNZM8 :beer:

#468

:deal: How to make a reflected chrome logo in maya’s view port. :deal:
:beer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRzXUUNfo5M :beer:

#469

Edit: updated because Logic Error is embarrasing and the

“then don’t do that” fix was getting old. version 2.0.5 download <–

multiple bug fixes:

the userSetup.mel code to re-establish shelfButton popUp menus failed if the tablayout was not visible.
( the lsUI control search would fail )

multiple fixes for multiple objects with matching names failure:
( variable for object failed to be recognized when there were copies matching the
same name in different paths.
// Error: file: %%/cly_pivotReflectionModeling.mel line 841: No object matches name: |pCube1 // )

symmetry utilities would “break;” without resetting orientaion offset and original parent.

cly_pivotReflectionModeling.mel.v.2.0.5
cly_pivotReflectionModeling.mel is a Maya symmetry solution that
mirrors ( or auto-mirrors ) based on pivot location.

with the auto mirror scriptJob running… Maya’s tools and actions are all reflected after every edit.
( like a negatively scaled instance but without the hard seam or set-up hassle )

USAGE:
This script requires user to follow such a werkflow as:

Optionally, run cly_pivotReflectionModelingPrefs.mel to set preferences. then…
Simply Modify -> center pivot or…
Hit yer insert key and interactively place each mesh’s pivot. or…
Do nothing ( yer pivot was peachy to begin with ) and
Execute this script cly_pivotReflectionModeling to mirror across the pivot position.
The script automates deletion of half yer model,
mirrors yer object, mirroring edits
and history across the pivot axis ( reflected extrudes, polysplits etc…)

Stray vertices @ the origin are cleaned “centered”.
( dependent on the “Origin Straighten Threshold” in cly_pivotReflectionModelingPrefs.mel )

Holes outside the merge threshold are preserved.

If present, edge smoothing at the origin loop is preserved.

if cly_autoMirrorScriptJob.mel’s scriptJob UI is running then mirroing is automated on any object after each edit.
( any poly mesh with focus is auto mirrored )

ASSUMES USER HAS AN ORIGIN EDGELOOP ( “SAVE FOR MINI-MISTAKES WITHIN THE CORRECTIVE THRESHOLD SET IN
PREFERENCES” ) THAT IS ALIGNED STRAIGHT WITH THE AXIS OF THEIR PREFERENCE.

Known Issues:
Edge Extrudes will fail if “along” the origin edge loop. ( don’t do that )
edge extrudes intersecting ( T ) and even crossing ( + ) the origin are fine.

T and + actually provide for different extrude functionaity for both edges and faces
( extruded together or extuded apart )

[left][/left]

I’ll try to post a video capture of an example workflow later.
If not, with the setUp option… a shelfButton is created overloaded with a
popUp menu that will get u to all the features under the hood.

#470

If weightMe is the object having weights painted on it:

  1. Dupe weightMe as weightMeClone
  2. Set weightMe as blendShape target to weightMeClone
  3. Throw your favorite grid texture on weightMeClone & create a cam for it. Maybe open a new floating window for weightMeCloneCam.
#471

A couple more tips for this procedure.

  1. LMB drag + “k” will scroll the timeline. As soon as “k” is pressed, the viewport will turn off weight shaded view and show the texture (if the viewport is in texture view mode).
  2. Setting the viewport renderer to high quality will override weight shaded view, so a new cam can be created, set to high quality and then used to watch texture stretching while painting weights.
#472

EightBit,
Have u tried ( alt + c ) while painting skin weights?
It is a nice fast way to toggle between weight shaded and textured.

#473

Didn’t know that one, thanks claydough, very useful.

#474

dkAnim for exporting/importing animation curves. Its an older MEL script. But it helped me get out of a tight spot where Maya’s AnimImportExport plugin couldn’t.

http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/scripts-plugins/animation/c/dkanim/comments#tabs

#475

Although Maya never crashes, if you have code in the script editor that you don’t want to lose, a quick select all and save (Cntl-a, Cntl-s) will back it up w/out too much workflow interruption. The ‘save’ name will default to the name of your SE Tab.
Just in case…

#476

#477

These things called “polygons”!
Only found out what they were yesterday!

#478

Any idea if this exists for 2011? (or exists at all in legal form? The roadkill pro website appears as a single image and all other google searches just point to dodgy pirate sites. I hate UV’ing also and if there was something like Headus that plugged straight into maya I’d be pretty pleased

#479

the official website might help
http://www.pullin-shapes.co.uk/page8.htm

#480

hello,

since i use a wacom pen there is a tool i couldn’t live without : autohotkey
you can remap every key to another, specialy combinaisons alt+mmb+lmb etc… for exemple i use only one pen button to tumble, zoom, and track. and when the pen buttons becomes too painful i use keyboard.

that free scripted freeware can use many hotkeys sets depend on the software you are, so you can manage same hotkeys for maya max roadkill (except the tumble tool of zbrush wich is very particular), even it can detect the marking menu and remap your keys.

a completly another tip i like it’s to use presets curves for the soft selection : nice pinch and bulge curves, which are missing so here it is the pinch :
softSelect -e -softSelectCurve “0,1,1,0.030303,0.87931,1,0.0606061,0.767241,1,0.121212,0.655172,1,0.212121,0.543103,1,0.33,0.43,1,0.48,0.317,1,0.644,0.207,1,0.814,0.102,1,1,0,1”;

and the bulge :
softSelect -e -softSelectCurve “1,0.0215517,1,0.409091,0.650862,1,0.257576,0.74569,1,0.106061,0.844828,1,0.030303,0.913793,1,0.969697,0.125,1,0.909091,0.25431,1,0.818182,0.362069,1,0.69697,0.469828,1,0.545455,0.564655,1,0,1,1”;

i have also hotkey easy scripts, to quickly toggle soft selection, toggle soft selection color feedback, toggle selection hilight, toggle reflection, and toggle cam based selection, but some seems to don’t work with maya2011, so if anyone need these for a previous maya, then ask :slight_smile: