Getting wraps to scale in 3DS Max and Maya
There is annoying behaviour that exists for wraps in both 3DS Max and Maya. When wrapping geometry to an influence that is scaling at the component/sub-object level, the thickness of the wrapped geometry does not scale and the mesh becomes jagged when reaching certain thresholds. It makes sense since polygons do not actually have any thickness, however, this is bad news for making your rigs scalable.
I was having trouble finding a solution to the problem when searching the internet. The best solution I found was to pass the wrapped geometry through a blendshape node and then scale that node. This was not a suitable solution for what I needed as the rig I was dealing with had far too many wraps. It would have meant a huge pain to get working and also a much slower rig in the end.
Read MoreAnother go with Maya Muscle
Separate blendshapes seamlessly in Maya
Last week, I had to come up with a way of separating one blendshape into multiple blendshapes. So basically, imagine we have one blendshape of a full smile and we need to separate it into left and right.
If you go to the Edit Deformers menu, there is an option to paint blendshape weights. This is the tool we will be using, but the tricky part of separating blendshapes like this is the overlap area between the shapes. Since blendshapes are additive, if the overlap area is not done properly, when both blendshapes are enabled you may run into areas where it is morphing more or less than what you intended.
Read MoreNesquik Commercials
This is another project I did almost two years ago now. Once again, it was a quick turnaround for Hatch Studio, when I was last working at PEN Productions. Paul Neale Rigged the ears on the bunny in the two commercial spots the bunny character was used in, while I took care of the rest of the character. I think Hatch did a great job on these commercials, as well as the Kid’s Cuisine spots.
Read MoreKid Cuisine Commericals
This was a project from close to two years ago now. Time sure does fly. It was a quick turnaround for Hatch Studio when I was last working with PEN Productions. I did all the rigging on the penguin-looking main character, “Kid”.
Read MoreSticky Lips: How To & Sample File
It was requested that I release my sticky lips setup so people could try to take the solution further. I haven’t spent much time on it since posting about it way back, so I figured I might as well. Only thing I ask of anybody that does further develop this is please provide a link back to my website and keep me up to date on any improvements you have made :)
Click here to download the sample file (Made in 3ds Max 2010, and is of a Sackboy-looking teapot since I do not want to be distributing the model seen below, which is not mine, around the internets)
A video of the effect in action. Special thanks to Craig Hobbs for use of the model:
For now I am just going to do a general write-up of some things I am doing in the file and why I am doing them. It might sound like a tutorial at parts, but I’m more just explaining the general process and thoughts behind the setup. This is not intended to actually be a tutorial, and you may still have to figure some things out on your own.
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