Maya Tutorials -- Rigging for Animation
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Each node has inputs and outputs. They can receive incoming connections from one attribute, and output to another. So “addDoubleLinear” just means it’s going to add the two inputs and throw them into the “output” attribute of that node. The Help documentation will let you know what each node’s inputs and outputs are and how they can be connected ...
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| Evil Exp 2 (Click for larger view) |
Using utility nodes will save you time in renders, save time animating, and will keep things much less complicated in the rig. Since they don’t evaluate every frame, they are a great tool to use for simple math functions. Make sure you name them something related to the function they are performing; that way you can quickly look through the Hypergraph and figure out what is going on.
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Once you have some MEL knowledge under your belt you’ll find even more complicated things you can do with utility nodes, including using multiple nodes for one output, and different ways to automate making them.
If you absolutely cannot live without an expression in your scene, then at least try to keep the expressions from inhibiting the animator, or forcing some kind of movement within the rig. A good example of this kind of expression would be one that automatically adjusts the center of gravity of the character when one leg is raised. Though it might seem useful, this is something that should be left up to the animator. After all, that is their job, right?
Counter Animation -- Your Enemy:
What is counter animation? You might have used the term in passing, not really understanding what it meant. On the other hand, maybe you’re an experienced animator who knows the feeling of counter animation all too well. Either way, you at least know it’s something you don’t want to encounter as an animator.
Counter animation happens when an animator has to animate against the controls. You move the foot forward, but the hip dips down with it, courtesy of an expression that one of the TDs put in there. Now you have to animate the hip control back to where it was before you moved the foot in order to keep it where it was supposed to stay in the first place. “That lousy TD!” you say, what was he thinking?
When you are rigging a character, it is important to be aware of how each one of your controls will affect another control elsewhere on the rig. You don’t want to have a chain reaction of events going on every time you move one object.
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| Control Ex.1 (Click for larger view) |
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| Control Ex. 2 (Click for larger view) |
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