I recently found out that highend3d, which used to be Creative Crash, might be going away.
So I’ve created a Gumroad account: https://alrichardson.gumroad.com/
and started moving my tools there, more to come!
Moving to GumRoad
Tools
Set project button!
Nice little tool which looks for you ‘scenes’ folder and sets the project to that location:
import maya.cmds as cmds
import maya.mel as mel
import maya.OpenMaya as om
def setProj():
# find directory
currentDir = cmds.file( query = True, location = True )
# dicect directory and set project
try:
projectDir,garbage = currentDir.split( 'scenes' )
except:
return om.MGlobal.displayError( 'You need to have you file in a project folder structurte first' )
mel.eval( 'setProject ' + '"' + projectDir + '"' )
om.MGlobal.displayInfo( 'current project set to : ' + projectDir )
del projectDir
del garbage
setProj()
Creative Crash!
I’ve uploded my first tool to creativecrash!
http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/script/arjointorient
Its a tool I’ve written for orienting joints in Maya.
I wrote the tool for my own use, then after a while,
a few iterations and some UI building I decided to post
it so other people could give it a shot.
If you’re reading this, give it a go yourself!
Zeroing out. Or in.
Today I wrote a little tool that simply groups whatever you have selected, for the purposes of cleaning up transforms. Also works with multiple objects selected and groups them all under a group in the same worldspace as the first selected object.
Grab the code here and place it on your shelf.
import maya.cmds as cmds
import maya.OpenMaya as om
grpList = cmds.ls(sl = True)
parentObj = cmds.listRelatives( grpList[0], parent = True )
cmds.group( em = True, name = grpList[0] + '_Zero_GRP' )
cmds.parentConstraint( grpList[0], grpList[0] + '_Zero_GRP' )
cmds.delete( grpList[0] + '_Zero_GRP_parentConstraint1' )
cmds.scaleConstraint( grpList[0], grpList[0] + '_Zero_GRP' )
cmds.delete( grpList[0] + '_Zero_GRP_scaleConstraint1' )
cmds.parent( grpList[0], grpList[0] + '_Zero_GRP' )
try:
cmds.parent( grpList[0] + '_Zero_GRP', parentObj )
om.MGlobal.displayInfo( grpList[0] + ' now has a group above it' )
except:
om.MGlobal.displayInfo( grpList[0] + ' has no parent object, grouped in world space' )
cmds.select( grpList[0] )
newParent = cmds.listRelatives( parent = True )
listEndNumber = len(grpList)
remainingObj = grpList[1:int(listEndNumber)]
for i in remainingObj:
cmds.parent( i, newParent )
om.MGlobal.displayInfo( grpList[0] + ' now has a group above it' )
Naming and renaming
During the last job I was on, we were receiving rigs from another company.
These rigs did not always match our hierarchy and naming conventions, so, part of my job was to recompile these rigs to match our conventions. One common and potentially time consuming job was the renaming of control curves.
We would receive them with naming conventions along the lines of ‘*_Ctrl_01’, ‘*_Ctrl_02’ and so on.
Renaming every control in the rig is neigh on impossible, so I wrote a script to do so!
The script I wrote was smashed together with no time for optimization but now with a little time on my hands I have rewritten it to be user friendly and fast.
Here it is, have a look!
import maya.cmds as cmds
selection = cmds.ls( sl = True)
for i in selection:
shape = cmds.listRelatives( i, shapes = True )
if shape == None:
print 'No shape for ' + i + ', aborting.'
else:
try:
a,b = i.split('_Ctrl')
cmds.rename( i, a + b + '_Ctrl' )
except:
print 'No Ctrl in name of ' + i
Saving time
I spent today putting finishing touches on a script that saves a new version of the current scene. and a button icon to go with!
Grab the script here and pop it on your shelf.
################################################################################################
################################################################################################
### Save new version of current scene ###
### By Alastair Richardson ###
### May, 2013 ###
### Intended for Maya Ascii files ###
### Use: ###
### padding is the number of digits in the version number. ###
### ###
### versionIndicator is the characters that come before ###
### the version number. May be _V or _v depending on your ###
### pipeline. ###
### ###
### fileCountNumbering can be set to True or False. ###
### If set to True, the next version number will be obtained ###
### by counting the number of files in the working folder. ###
### This method is unpredictable if folder contains additional ###
### files or folders. ###
### ###
### If set to False, the next version number will be obtained ###
### using the current version number, can be risky if rolling ###
### to old versions is required. ###
### ###
################################################################################################
################################################################################################
padding = 3
versionIndicator = '_v'
fileCountNumbering = True
################################################################################################
### ###
### Change script at your own risk ###
### ###
################################################################################################
import maya.cmds as cmds
from pymel.core import *
import maya.OpenMaya as om
import os
def saveNewVer():
# find directory
currentDir = cmds.file( query = True, location = True )
splitDir = currentDir.split('/')
length = len(splitDir)
lessOne = length - 1
shortDir = splitDir[0:lessOne]
directoryToOpen = '/'.join(shortDir)
# create next version number of file
if fileCountNumbering == True :
# find the next version based on number of files on directory
currentFileName = splitDir[length -1]
versionSpilt = currentFileName.split(versionIndicator)
currentName = versionSpilt[0]
files = os.listdir( directoryToOpen )
mayaAscii = []
for i in files:
try:
a,b = i.split('.')
except:
print i + ' has no extension'
if b == 'ma':
mayaAscii.append(i)
else:
print str(i) + ' is not a Maya ASCII'
nextVersion = len(mayaAscii) + 1
else:
# find version by disecting current file name at _v
currentFileName = splitDir[length -1]
versionSpilt = currentFileName.split(versionIndicator)
sansMA = versionSpilt[1].split('.')
currentVersion = sansMA[0]
currentName = versionSpilt[0]
nextVersion = int(currentVersion) + 1
# do the saving
newDirName = directoryToOpen + '/' + currentName + versionIndicator + str(nextVersion).zfill(padding)
Mel.eval( "source addRecentFile.mel" )
Mel.eval('addRecentFile "%s" "%s";' % (newDirName + '.ma', 'mayaAscii'))
cmds.file( rename = newDirName )
cmds.file( save = True )
om.MGlobal.displayInfo( 'saved to ' + newDirName )
saveNewVer()
Correctional blendShapes tool
Here is a fantastic correctional blendShapes tool by Chad Vernon.
http://www.chadvernon.com/blog/resources/maya-tools/cvshapeinverter/
As an aside, Chad Vernons site is a fantastic resource for anyone wanting to expand their knowledge of programming for Maya.
Cluster tool
I wrote a bit of code that will create a cluster on polygon geometry regardless of selection type, eg face, edge or vertex. Speeds things up a little.
import maya.cmds as cmds
def makeCluster():
selection = cmds.ls(sl=True)
for i in selection:
string = str(i)
try:
object,selected = string.split('.')
sel,CVnum = selected.split('[')
if sel == 'e':
verts = cmds.polyListComponentConversion(selection,fromEdge=True,toVertex=True)
cmds.select(verts, r=True)
print 'passed edge'
if sel == 'f':
verts = cmds.polyListComponentConversion(selection,fromFace=True,toVertex=True)
cmds.select(verts, r=True)
print 'passed face'
if sel == 'vtx':
print ' no conversion needed'
print 'passed vtx'
except:
print 'object selected'
cmds.cluster()
makeCluster()
Skinning tool
tfSmoothSkinWeights is a free, simple and effective skin smoothing tool that I use all the time!
Have a look:
http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/scripts-plugins/character/c/tf_smoothskinweight–2