Author: nickyliu

Beta

May 10, 2024
rigging
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For the last few months I’ve been building my own modular rigging framework and tools. As a very early version, I try to make the UI as simple as possible. There are a few professional projects around. I’ve just added a page Gems to jot them down. Some UIs are quite “stunning” to me. Although rigging could be complicated, I hope I can simplify things unless neccessary.

Here I find the Python Style Guide by Google. I did write years of MEL and it could be hard to manage when it goes over several thousand lines. I’m now learning to refactor codes as frequent as possible to shorten pick-up time.

Disassemble and Rebuild 2

May 5, 2024
rigging
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Having subscribed another month of ProRigs in April, there are always little thing to learn. For example, the outsole of a running shoe is usually a bit off the ground. In the past I would see it as pure flat. In their rigs I found that a simple extra set-driven-key is added at the very start during the foot roll. The action is more believable with this tiny detail.

I came across an impressive reel by Mateusz Poplawski https://vimeo.com/mpoplawski This is inspirational on how rig features could be shown in a concise way. Recently I’m checking with the characters by ToyRig www.toyrig.com. Not only they are free, the smearing feature is amazing. Just like some of the rigs some joints and meshes are locked and hidden. So if you want to see them for study purpose, open the file in an editor. Search with the hidden node name. The answer is quite obvious 😀

Amazing Skeletons

April 13, 2024
reference
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Recently found a great resource of skeleton reference for animal : vertebres3d.fr

For some times I’ve been collecting skeleton models as basis of my auto-rig tool. They are good as a template to work on but some of them are edited by modeler and polygons are reduced. The skeletons in Vertebre3d app are detailed and accurate by scanning from museum collections. It would be cooler if download is available. 🙂

Custom Marking Menu

January 11, 2024
python
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Most of the time, I use shortcuts / shelf buttons in Maya to speed things up. Today I went through the tutorial CGCircuit – Rigging Productivity Boost by Carlo Sansonetti. The videos are straightforward. One thing I don’t like is that the setup involves too many manual clicks and depends on Maya’s UI.

I found a post in BindPose which suggests a cleaner way: popupMenu. I think the idea is brilliant and credit goes to Vasil Shotarov. Now I have fewer buttons in my shelf and one more simple way to make life easier in Maya !!!

Disassemble and Rebuild

January 7, 2024
rigging
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Giant Man, ProRigs.com

There’s always a lot to learn in other’s rigs. The characters by ProRigs are affordable and the models are nice. The arrangement of attributes is clear and the ribbon setup is well designed.

I would subscribe later for further study since my current month’s subscription is about to end. Time to jump back to previously unfinished tutorials for a clearer picture of rigging a complete character.

Python @property

November 27, 2023
python
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While learning thru advanced tutorials, it’s time to consolidate some basic concepts in Python. The explanation about property at https://www.programiz.com/python-programming/property is very clear. I’m writing an example below to remind myself of the private variable _cm being a convention only. Name like temp_cm works too.

Also cm is no longer a normal instance variable when property decorator is used. The design of adding @property allows backward compatible to keep codes unchanged!

class Unit:
    def __init__(self, cm=0):
        self.cm = cm

    def toInch(self):
        return self.cm * 0.3937

    # @property
    # def cm(self):
    #     return self.temp_cm
    #
    # @cm.setter
    # def cm(self, v):
    #     self.temp_cm = v

unit = Unit(cm=100)
print(unit.__dict__)

# {'cm': 100}        Without getter setter. The old way.
# {'temp_cm': 100}   With getter setter. The code still runs. It's backward compatible !

Time to Un-learn

October 30, 2023
Lifepython
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Regaining my time, there are long-awaited things I’m going to learn.

Having built several applications with python, I still don’t think I know python well. At the moment I would recommend the course Python for Maya: Beginner to Advanced Rigging Automation by Nick Hughes to beginners. I’ve just skimmed through about 40% of the course. The demo was done in Maya and explanation is thorough. The early parts are mostly basic but I start to find sth useful for better coding. In the past I would write

def f(nameList):
    for name in nameList:
        mc.polyCube(n=name)

f(['a','b'])

Now I could skip the for loop with map function

def f(name):
    mc.polyCube(n=name)
    
list(map(f,['a','b']))

Another one I’d like to share is The Gnomon Workshop – Automating Animation & Game-Ready Rigs by Nick Miller. It’s more advanced and I did fasten my seat belt to learn from him. He is undoubtedly an expert and made things “easy”. The videos are done so next is to study his codes and thought in OOP way.

Finally

September 20, 2022
Liferigging
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Catching Covid finally after it’s been prevailing in Hong Kong for that long. Right now I’m quarantined in an interesting government facility and will be released soon hopefully.

At work there are some studies to be done to make use of Metahuman‘s setup somehow. It seems problematic when applying on tiny characters and faces with entirely different proportion. Anyway sharing of similar technologies is truly welcome. More artists could make better work by standing on the shoulder of the giant.

Survive

October 26, 2020
Uncategorized
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It has been a challenging time. Mask is becoming part of daily clothing. Performing arts & filming industry are greatly affected worldwide. Everyone’s life matters. I hope you are all well, safe and healthy.

These years Blender and UE4 have larger and larger user base. They are FREE but evolving much faster than the white elephants. So the time for lifelong learning again.

Recently I’ve been spending more time in practising English. Hopefully a breakthrough will come along.

Good luck and hang on !

Another Year

March 12, 2018
Uncategorized
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Oooops, it’s been a year since the last post.

I’m still working on facial stuff. Just that it’s involving facial scan and capture this time. Actually my Pinterest is updated quite frequently, as my personal reference source.

https://www.pinterest.com/chiNicky/3d-face/

Time to work again. Happy facial rigging ~