Modifier Auto-Select
Current Version: v2.02 – Feburary 28, 2010
This is a tool I put together because sometimes you have to work with modifiers on multiple nodes and the modifiers aren’t at the very top of the stack. You’re constantly having to select the node and then selecting the proper modifier. Prime example of this is when you have a turbosmooths on top of all of your geometry while you are either skinning or modelling. It would be much easier, and save quite a bit of time, if every time you selected a node you just automatically were on the skin modifier or edit poly modifier.
Enter this tool! This is exactly what we have here. This tools works off of modifier class and also has an option for checking the modifier’s name using a “Has string” search. Baseobject has also been added to the modifier list, so you can automatically go right to the bottom of the stack.
Read MoreTools Section Added
I have added the tools section now and I will gradually add tools over time. They are going to be released as individual MZP installer packages.
The macroscript categories for my tools, if you are looking to add them to a quad menu or toolbar, will always start with facerFX.
Read MoreReturn to PEN
I just realized that I have not updated my job situation in a long while! My contract with Prime Focus World wrapped up back in mid-July, and although I was sad to leave the friends I had made there, I was excited to return back home.
About 2 weeks after returning to Ontario, I resumed work with PEN Productions as Senior Technical Director and Production Supervisor. It has been great working with Paul Neale again. We have been very busy since getting back, working with familiar clients as well as a few new ones.
Read MoreFFD Mirroring
I’ve always found mirroring FFD Spacewarps to be a real pain. I finally decided to play a bit earlier today to try to find a good way of doing it rather than settling for a negative scale in the x-axis or roughing out a “mirrored” version.
So, we all know negative scale is a bad thing; however, mirroring without getting a negative scale is not as straight forward and easy as simply clicking the mirror button in the tool bar. There are ways of getting around this for things such as morph targets: most straight forward in Max 2010 is using Symmetry Tools in the Graphite Modeling Tools. I’ve always found it to be extra tedious though when dealing with FFD Spacewarps. They are often warped into very obscure shapes for cartoon-style characters, and unfortunately the Graphite Tools only deal with Editable_Poly classes. FFD Spacewarps are also a bit of a black hole when it comes to MAXScript, so as far as I know you can’t just go and write a tool to do it either.
Read More