After going through the Custom Nurbs On/Off you can start setting up a lot more similar hotkeys. Sometimes you don't have a GUI for the fingers, so you need to go in and select the individual joints of the fingers. I would set up buttons on the shelve for that so that you don't have to repeat this, but it's also handy to have a Joints On/Off hotkey.
I try to have all the major functions around my hand that's on the keyboard. So besides the translate, rotate and scale, and the nurbs on/off, I set "Previous Frame" and "Next Frame" to the keys 4 and 5.
Go into your hotkey editor and in the Categories scroll down to "Playback Controls". I then modified the hotkey assignments for "PreviousFrame" and "NextFrame" to "Alt+4" and "Alt+5".
Showing posts with label Tutorials. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tutorials. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Custom Hotkey - Nurbs Controller On/Off
Here is a handy hotkey that I use all the time and that can speed up your workflow.
When I have a scene open, I divide my window setup like this:
The outliner on the top right, so I can see what I have in my scene, constraints, locators, etc. whatever I set up for the scene. On the right, the render camera, because that's what I am animating to. Bottom left my graph editor for sweet animation tweaking and to the right my perspective camera to move around my scene.
Speaking of moving. Ever had the problem that you would suddenly move your render camera around because you thought that it was the perspective camera? And then you loose the position because you didn't keyframe the settings? The moment I decide on the camera, I lock all the channel attributes, just to be safe.
So I'm looking at my scene through the render camera and see that the arc on the head turn is not quite working. Now I want to select the head controller so I can tweak the animation. Either you select the CON in your character GUI, or your switch to a different camera that has your controller curves set to visible, or in the camera panel view you go to show>Nurbs Curves, etc. Most of the time it involves a few steps and it would be cool to have it faster.
So you can set up a hotkey, so that when you push a button (and hold it) the curves appear and when you release the key the curves are gone. I'm a lefty so my example layout is based on that but it obviously works for righties.
Being left handed means that in my work setup, my right hand is on the keyboard with my index on the "W"and ending with my middle finger on "R", and my thumb is on "Alt". That way I control the camera and the translate, rotate and scale functions. My pinky and index would control two other functions but I rarely use them. With that finger layout I chose the key "g" for my "show nurbs" hotkey, because I only have to lower my finger down to that key, it's very close and accessible. When I push "g" the curves appear, when I let go the curves disappear.
How do I set this up? First open your script editor:
Then in that window go to Script>Echo all commands:
and Edit>Clear All so that your script editor is clean and empty:
Now you have to decide for which window this hotkey will work (or you set it up for all windows, but I'll go ahead with just one). As you can see above, my rendercamera is always in the upper right window, which is panel 4. The panel layout is like this:
Seems kinda odd, but that's what the script editor is telling me... So I'm going for #4. What you do you know is go to Show>NURBS Curves (my check mark was off). Then look at your script editor and this is what you get:
The line that's important for the hotkey modification is "modelEditor -e -nurbsCurves 1 modelPanel4;". The #1 means on, when you turn the curves off, you'll see a 0. And the window that I chose for that is modelPanel4.
You then go into your Hotkey Editor by clicking Window>Settings/Preferences>Hotkeys...
In there you will scroll down to User. in the Catogories section.
Then click on New, give it a name (I gave it nurbson), and paste the line modelEditor -e -nurbsCurves 1 modelPanel4; into the Command box. Click Accept. In the "Assign New Hotkey" section, I put in g for the Key. The Direction is Press. Assign that. You might get a message saying that another command is already assigned to g, but I just ignored that. Repeat all this with a new New command (called nurbsoff). Name it g as well but for the Direction you select Release. Assign all that and Save it. You are good to go.
So now you go and push and release that button with panel4 selected and your curves will appear and disappear, allowing for quick selections.
When I have a scene open, I divide my window setup like this:
The outliner on the top right, so I can see what I have in my scene, constraints, locators, etc. whatever I set up for the scene. On the right, the render camera, because that's what I am animating to. Bottom left my graph editor for sweet animation tweaking and to the right my perspective camera to move around my scene.
Speaking of moving. Ever had the problem that you would suddenly move your render camera around because you thought that it was the perspective camera? And then you loose the position because you didn't keyframe the settings? The moment I decide on the camera, I lock all the channel attributes, just to be safe.
So I'm looking at my scene through the render camera and see that the arc on the head turn is not quite working. Now I want to select the head controller so I can tweak the animation. Either you select the CON in your character GUI, or your switch to a different camera that has your controller curves set to visible, or in the camera panel view you go to show>Nurbs Curves, etc. Most of the time it involves a few steps and it would be cool to have it faster.
So you can set up a hotkey, so that when you push a button (and hold it) the curves appear and when you release the key the curves are gone. I'm a lefty so my example layout is based on that but it obviously works for righties.
Being left handed means that in my work setup, my right hand is on the keyboard with my index on the "W"and ending with my middle finger on "R", and my thumb is on "Alt". That way I control the camera and the translate, rotate and scale functions. My pinky and index would control two other functions but I rarely use them. With that finger layout I chose the key "g" for my "show nurbs" hotkey, because I only have to lower my finger down to that key, it's very close and accessible. When I push "g" the curves appear, when I let go the curves disappear.
How do I set this up? First open your script editor:
Then in that window go to Script>Echo all commands:
and Edit>Clear All so that your script editor is clean and empty:
Now you have to decide for which window this hotkey will work (or you set it up for all windows, but I'll go ahead with just one). As you can see above, my rendercamera is always in the upper right window, which is panel 4. The panel layout is like this:
Seems kinda odd, but that's what the script editor is telling me... So I'm going for #4. What you do you know is go to Show>NURBS Curves (my check mark was off). Then look at your script editor and this is what you get:
The line that's important for the hotkey modification is "modelEditor -e -nurbsCurves 1 modelPanel4;". The #1 means on, when you turn the curves off, you'll see a 0. And the window that I chose for that is modelPanel4.
You then go into your Hotkey Editor by clicking Window>Settings/Preferences>Hotkeys...
In there you will scroll down to User. in the Catogories section.
Then click on New, give it a name (I gave it nurbson), and paste the line modelEditor -e -nurbsCurves 1 modelPanel4; into the Command box. Click Accept. In the "Assign New Hotkey" section, I put in g for the Key. The Direction is Press. Assign that. You might get a message saying that another command is already assigned to g, but I just ignored that. Repeat all this with a new New command (called nurbsoff). Name it g as well but for the Direction you select Release. Assign all that and Save it. You are good to go.
So now you go and push and release that button with panel4 selected and your curves will appear and disappear, allowing for quick selections.
Animation Links, Tools, Tutorials and Resources
Here you will find an ever increasing collection of links regarding all things animation.
Spungella Animation Workshops
Academy of Art
Animation Portfolio Tips & Reference:
Animation Workflow Techniques:
Rigs, Tools & Tutorial Resources:
Book/DVD Resources:
Recommended Sites:
Spungella Animation Workshops
Academy of Art
Animation Portfolio Tips & Reference:
- Acting Reference
- Animation Mentor Fall 2007 Student Showcase
- Resume and Demo Reel Guidelines
- Great Animation Examples
Animation Workflow Techniques:
- Mike Walling's Workflow
- Justin Barrett's Workflow
- TJ Phan's Workflow
- Cameron Fielding's Workflow
- Jacob Gardner's Workflow
- Kevin Koch's Workflow
- My Workflow (W.I.P.)
Rigs, Tools & Tutorial Resources:
- Animation Buffet - Free Maya Rigs to go
- How to tweak "Norman"
- frameCounter
- Dry Erase
- Custom Hotkey - Nurbs Controller On/Off
- Animation Hotkeys
Book/DVD Resources:
- Vision of Light - The Art of Cinematography DVD
- The Animal/Human Motion Show DVD
- Industry Books
- Animation Books
- Acting Books
- Filmmaking Books
Recommended Sites:
- Mr. Blake's Art Diary
- 11 Second Club
- Academy of Art University
- Animated-News
- Animation Buffet
- Animation Mentor
- Animation Resource & Tutorial Thread
- BBC Motion Gallery
- Carlos Baena Animation Resources
- Cartoon Brew
- CG Char
- Character Design
- Cinematic Terms - A Film-Making Glossary
- Common CG Animation Pitfalls
- Flip
- Jeff's Academy Animation Site
- John Nevarez
- Keith Lango
- Shaun Freeman Animation Resources
- Spline Doctors
- Strut your Reel
- Upcoming Pixar
- Victor Navone's Resource Page
- Principles of Animation: here, here and here
- Animation Mentor Tips & Tricks Blog
- TJ Phan
- TAG Blog - Animation Guild
- David Nethery's AAU blog
- The Artistic Anatomy Blog
- AAU Animation Club
- Animators Resource blog
- Brendan Body (lots of awesome tutorials)
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
AAU Class F.A.Q., Links and Resources
This post is for my current/former/future AAU students and has a condensed collection of links, which will hopefully be helpful to them.
Technically I want my students to be exposed to as much animation information as possible, but for all the general animation links, feel free to check out the "Animation Resources" section.
But for now, please make sure to read the:
- here you will find answers related to our class and if not, let me know!
You obviously need animation rigs in order to start your shots and most students are using the "Norman" rig. Since I prefer that you tweak "Norman" at least a little bit so that he's not just grey, I want to point you to Nair Archawattana's
which gives you excellent step-by-step instructions. I also recommend that you play around with other rigs in order to make your shot(s) more original and fun. To see most of the free Maya rigs (I'm adding new rigs whenever time permits), please visit:
There are already a lot of rigs available and the selection is growing. Have fun!
Next up are very handy tools which can speed up your workflow:
Not that you have all the time in the world, but I still recommend that you go through as many previous posts as possible. Hopefully my Summary Lists will speed up the process a bit:
Finally, just in case you need to be up-to-date with AAU dates & events, here's the:
That's it so far. If there is anything you want me to add, please let me know.
Technically I want my students to be exposed to as much animation information as possible, but for all the general animation links, feel free to check out the "Animation Resources" section.
But for now, please make sure to read the:
- here you will find answers related to our class and if not, let me know!
You obviously need animation rigs in order to start your shots and most students are using the "Norman" rig. Since I prefer that you tweak "Norman" at least a little bit so that he's not just grey, I want to point you to Nair Archawattana's
which gives you excellent step-by-step instructions. I also recommend that you play around with other rigs in order to make your shot(s) more original and fun. To see most of the free Maya rigs (I'm adding new rigs whenever time permits), please visit:
There are already a lot of rigs available and the selection is growing. Have fun!
Next up are very handy tools which can speed up your workflow:
- "frameCounter" (the file)
- "frameCounter" more info on it
- "Dry Erase"
- "Custom Hotkey - Nurbs Controller On/Off"
- "Animation Hotkeys"
Not that you have all the time in the world, but I still recommend that you go through as many previous posts as possible. Hopefully my Summary Lists will speed up the process a bit:
- Spring 07 Class Summary
- Fall 07 Class Summary
- Spring 08 Class Summary
- Summer 08 Class Summary
- Fall 08 Summary
- Spring 09 Summary
- Summer 09 Summary
- Fall 09 Summary
Finally, just in case you need to be up-to-date with AAU dates & events, here's the:
That's it so far. If there is anything you want me to add, please let me know.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)