Scripting A Simple Pose Reader

I recently learned this setup and just wanted to share a scripted version I had been working on.  For anyone who has never used a pose reader setup, it's a fantastic way to make your actions that are driven by specific poses to be more stable.  When I first learned rigging in school, I was taught to use set driven keyframes to drive an object based on a certain pose, so I included that setup in this blog as a comparison to the simple pose reader setup.  As a side note, the Pirate rig that is in my latest demo reel actually utilized this "simple pose reader" quite a bit - as I was learning the technique I started scripting it.  I used it to drive things like special deformation joints, corrective blendshapes, auto hips and shoulders, as well as accessories on the pirate's belt would move as the user interacts with the leg controls.  It was quite fun to work with such a simple and effective setup.

Anyway, here is a quick gif video of an example comparing two setups, the green is an action driven by a pose through an SDK - and the red is an action driven by a pose through the PSR. 

The SDK setup is a simple, the joint's rotateZ attribute from 0-90 will drive the translateY attribute of the sphere from 0-1.  Very limited without adding more animations.

Here is the simple graph setup for the PSR to drive the movement of the sphere.  To summarize, you are utilizing the PSR's controlled rotation values and remapping those values to different values that are sent over to the sphere (in this instance a single rotation of the joint drives the translate y of the sphere).

And here is the script I was working with...

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# Maya imports import pymel.core as pm import maya.OpenMaya as om def simple_pose_reader( root_joint ): """ Function to create a simple pose reader with "bend", "twist", "side" attributes on the selected joint to use to drive other systems Args: root_joint (pynode) : a pynode object representing the main joint used for the pose reading Returns: None """ def first_or_default( sequence, default=None ): """ Function to return the first item in a list or a default value Args: sequence (list) : a list of items to parse default (object) : a default value to return back if nothing was parsed from sequence Returns: The first object within the sequence or a default value """ for item in sequence: return item return default def get_bone_draw_axis( joint, default=om.MVector(0,1,0) ): """ Function to return the first item in a list or a default value Args: joint (pynode) : the pynode that represents the joint to determine the draw_axis of default (object) : a default value to return back if the draw_axis was not determined Returns: A MVector type that represents the normalized direction of the joint draw axis """ try: child = first_or_default( joint.getChildren( type='joint' ) ) except: raise ValueError( joint + " does not have any children" ) # Get the local position of the child joint ( localspace is offset from the parent space ) pos = [ value for value in child.getTranslation( localSpace=True ) ] # Check which axis is greater than the others, this will determine the draw_axis vector # X Axis if abs( pos[0] ) > abs( pos[1] ) and abs( pos[0] ) > abs( pos[2] ): if pos[0] > 0.0: return om.MVector( 1, 0, 0 ) return om.MVector( -1, 0, 0 ) # Y Axis elif abs( pos[1] ) > abs( pos[0] ) and abs( pos[1] ) > abs( pos[2] ): if pos[1] > 0.0: return om.MVector( 0, 1, 0 ) return om.MVector( 0, -1, 0 ) # Z Axis elif abs( pos[2] ) > abs( pos[0] ) and abs( pos[2] ) > abs( pos[1] ): if pos[2] > 0.0: return om.MVector( 0, 0, 1 ) return om.MVector( 0, 0, -1 ) return default def snap_to_transform( snap_transform, snap_to_transform ): """ Function to snap a transform to another transform based on position and orientation Args: snap_transform (pynode) : the object to snap snap_to_transform (pynode) : the object to snap to Returns: None """ snap_transform.setTranslation( snap_to_transform.getTranslation( worldSpace=True ), worldSpace=True ) snap_transform.setRotation( snap_to_transform.getRotation( worldSpace=True ), worldSpace=True ) # ensure pynode root_joint = pm.PyNode( root_joint ) setup_dict = { 'root_joint' : root_joint, 'child_joint' : first_or_default( root_joint.getChildren( type='joint' ) ), 'parent' : root_joint.getParent() } # create pose reader attributes on root_joint for attr in [ 'Bend', 'Twist', 'Side' ]: setup_dict['root_joint'].addAttr( 'psr_' + attr.lower(), attributeType='float', niceName='PSR ' + attr, keyable=True ) attr_name_list = [ setup_dict['root_joint'].name(), '.psr_', attr.lower() ] setup_dict[ 'attr_psr_' + attr.lower() ] = pm.PyNode( ''.join( attr_name_list ) ) # create organizing groups setup_dict[ 'psr_main_grp' ] = pm.group( name=setup_dict['root_joint'].name() + '_psrMain_GRP', empty=True ) setup_dict[ 'psr_target_grp' ] = pm.group( name=setup_dict['root_joint'].name() + '_psrTarget_GRP', empty=True ) setup_dict[ 'psr_twist_grp' ] = pm.group( name=setup_dict['root_joint'].name() + '_psrTwist_GRP', empty=True ) # create locators for loc in [ 'psrMain', 'psrMainTarget', 'psrMainUp', 'psrTwist', 'psrTwistTarget', 'psrTwistUp' ]: loc_name_list = [ setup_dict['root_joint'].name(), '_', loc, '_LOC' ] setup_dict[ loc ] = pm.spaceLocator( name= ''.join( loc_name_list ) ) setup_dict[ loc ].setParent( setup_dict['psr_main_grp'] ) # target locators parent under the target group, which is driven by the root_joint # the main grp is parented under the root_joint parent to maintain aiming without # taking in extra transforms from the root_joint or it's children [ setup_dict[ item ].setParent( setup_dict[ 'psr_target_grp' ] ) for item in [ 'psrMainTarget', 'psrTwistTarget' ] ] [ setup_dict[ item ].setParent( setup_dict[ 'psr_main_grp' ] ) for item in [ 'psr_target_grp', 'psr_twist_grp' ] ] [ setup_dict[ item ].setParent( setup_dict[ 'psr_twist_grp' ] ) for item in [ 'psrTwist', 'psrTwistUp' ] ] if setup_dict[ 'parent' ]: setup_dict[ 'psr_main_grp' ].setParent( setup_dict[ 'parent' ] ) # align main group to the selected root joint snap_to_transform( setup_dict[ 'psr_main_grp' ], setup_dict[ 'root_joint' ] ) draw_axis = get_bone_draw_axis( setup_dict['root_joint'] ) child_trans = setup_dict[ 'child_joint' ].getAttr( 't' ) child_offset = om.MVector( child_trans[0], child_trans[1], child_trans[2] ) # X draw axis if draw_axis == om.MVector( 1, 0, 0 ) or draw_axis == om.MVector( -1, 0, 0 ): main_up_offset = om.MVector( child_offset.x, child_offset.x, 0 ) main_up_vector = om.MVector( 0, -1, 0 ) twist_target_offset = om.MVector( 0, child_offset.x, 0 ) setup_dict[ 'twist_driver_rot' ] = [ '.rotateY', '.rotateX', '.rotateZ' ] # Y draw axis elif draw_axis == om.MVector( 0, 1, 0 ) or draw_axis == om.MVector( 0, -1, 0 ): main_up_offset = om.MVector( 0, child_offset.y, child_offset.y ) main_up_vector = om.MVector( 0, 0, -1 ) twist_target_offset = om.MVector( 0, child_offset.y, 0 ) setup_dict[ 'twist_driver_rot' ] = [ '.rotateZ', '.rotateY', '.rotateX' ] # Z draw axis else: main_up_offset = om.MVector( child_offset.z, 0, child_offset.z ) main_up_vector = om.MVector( -1, 0, 0 ) twist_target_offset = om.MVector( 0, 0, child_offset.z ) setup_dict[ 'twist_driver_rot' ] = [ '.rotateX', '.rotateY', '.rotateY' ] setup_dict[ 'psrMainTarget' ].setTranslation( child_offset * 0.5, localSpace=True, relative=True ) for loc in ['psrMain', 'psrTwistUp']: setup_dict[ loc ].setTranslation( child_offset * -1.0, localSpace=True, relative=True ) setup_dict[ 'psrTwistTarget' ].setTranslation( twist_target_offset * -1.0, localSpace=True, relative=True ) setup_dict[ 'psrMainUp' ].setTranslation( main_up_offset * -1.0, localSpace=True, relative=True ) setup_dict[ 'psrMainAC' ] = pm.aimConstraint( setup_dict[ 'psrMainTarget' ], setup_dict[ 'psrMain' ], maintainOffset=True, aimVector=[ draw_axis.x, draw_axis.y, draw_axis.z ], upVector=[ main_up_vector.x, main_up_vector.y, main_up_vector.z ], worldUpType='objectrotation', worldUpObject=setup_dict[ 'psrMainUp' ].name(), weight=1.0 ) setup_dict[ 'psrTwistAC' ] = pm.aimConstraint( setup_dict[ 'psrTwistTarget' ], setup_dict[ 'psrTwist' ], maintainOffset=True, aimVector=[ main_up_vector.x, main_up_vector.y, main_up_vector.z ], upVector=[ draw_axis.x * -1, draw_axis.y * -1, draw_axis.z * -1 ], worldUpType='objectrotation', worldUpObject=setup_dict[ 'psrTwistUp' ].name(), weight=1.0 ) setup_dict[ 'psr_target_grp' ].setParent( setup_dict[ 'root_joint' ] ) # the bend and side rotations of main psr locator drives the twist psr grp # this allows the child twist locator (under the twist psr grp) to maintain # an accurate twist rotation only pm.connectAttr( setup_dict['psrMain'] + setup_dict['twist_driver_rot'][0], setup_dict[ 'psr_twist_grp'] + setup_dict['twist_driver_rot'][0], force=True ) pm.connectAttr( setup_dict['psrMain'] + setup_dict['twist_driver_rot'][2], setup_dict[ 'psr_twist_grp'] + setup_dict['twist_driver_rot'][2], force=True ) # connect final calculations to the custom attributes on the root_joint # these can be used for various setups that are driven from the pose reader pm.connectAttr( setup_dict['psrMain'] + setup_dict['twist_driver_rot'][0], setup_dict[ 'attr_psr_bend' ], force=True ) pm.connectAttr( setup_dict['psrMain'] + setup_dict['twist_driver_rot'][2], setup_dict[ 'attr_psr_side' ], force=True ) pm.connectAttr( setup_dict['psrTwist'] + setup_dict['twist_driver_rot'][1], setup_dict[ 'attr_psr_twist' ], force=True ) selection = pm.ls( selection=True ) if selection: simple_pose_reader( selection[0] )

Maya Picture in Picture Tool (PiP) Development Part 2

I haven't had too much time to devote to getting PiP fully complete in a while - I am to a point now where I would like to put up a beta download and see what kind of feedback I get for improvements.

pip_tool.zip


Just unzip the pip_tool folder to your Maya python path (example, your documents/maya/scripts/ folder).  The code to launch the tool, from a Python tab in the Maya script Editor...

1 2	import pip_tool.pip as PiP PiP.jbPiP_UI()

This can be dragged to a shelf for later use.


I recently posted about my exploration with unit tests, I wanted to also post some of my early work with unit testing for PiP.  I feel like most folks who are early on in their learning path with unit tests would benefit from seeing examples of what kinds of things to test for.  This isn't my most current test library for PiP but it should get the point across...

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""" Jason Breneman unittest_pip.py This file contains the unit test library for the Picture in Picture tool. Some unit tests do not pass specifically due to launching Maya through a standalone session. """ # maya libraries import maya.standalone import maya.cmds as cmds try: maya.standalone.initialize() except: pass # python libraries import unittest import os import uuid import shutil import logging logging.basicConfig( level=logging.INFO ) logger = logging.getLogger( __name__ ) logger.info( "PiP Unit Test starting...\n" ) MAYA_VERSION = cmds.about( version=True ) MAYA_APP_DIR = os.environ["MAYA_APP_DIR"] ROOT_DEV_DIR = sys.path[0].replace( "\\", "/" ).replace( "/pip_tool/tests", "" ) ROOT_TOOL_PATH = MAYA_APP_DIR + "/scripts" logger.info( "'Maya Version' : " + MAYA_VERSION + "\n" ) logger.info( "'MAYA_APP_DIR' : " + MAYA_APP_DIR + "\n" ) class TestLibrary( unittest.TestCase ): """ Test Library unit test class for Picture in Picture tool """ def setUp( self ): """ Method to provide any standard setup instructions for a test case function Args: self (object) : reference to the TestLibrary class instance Returns: None """ pass def tearDown( self ): """ Method to provide any standard tear down instructions for a test case function Args: self (object) : reference to the TestLibrary class instance Returns: None """ pass def test_files_installed_check( self ): """ Test method for copying files from the development environment to the MAYA_APP_DIR path Args: self (object) : reference to the TestLibrary class instance Returns: None """ logger.info( "*** TestCase *** Remove existing install, and apply a fresh install\n" ) if os.path.exists( ROOT_TOOL_PATH + "/pip_tool" ): shutil.rmtree( ROOT_TOOL_PATH + "/pip_tool" ) shutil.copytree( ROOT_DEV_DIR + "/pip_tool", ROOT_TOOL_PATH + "/pip_tool" ) def test_import_check( self ): """ Test method to check for a successful module import Args: self (object) : reference to the TestLibrary class instance Returns: None """ logger.info( "*** TestCase *** Import pip_tool module\n" ) import_success = False error_message = "TestCase Failure, PiP module did not import correctly.\n" try: import pip_tool.pip as PiP import_success = True except: pass self.assertTrue( import_success, error_message ) def test_pip_instance( self ): """ Test method to check a successful instantiation of PiP Args: self (object) : reference to the TestLibrary class instance Returns: None """ logger.info( "*** TestCase *** Load a PiP instance\n" ) import pip_tool.pip as PiP reload( PiP ) loadout = PiP.jbPiP_UI() loadout_exists = cmds.modelEditor( loadout.name_instance + "__ME", query=True, exists=True ) error_message = "TestCase Failure, PiP loadout does not exist. Maya UI required for successful TestCase\n" self.assertTrue( loadout_exists, error_message ) def test_pip_callback_newscene( self ): """ Test method to check if the new scene callback gets properly deleted when a new scene event occurs Args: self (object) : reference to the TestLibrary class instance Returns: None """ logger.info( "*** TestCase *** Delete PiP on New Scene Callback\n" ) import pip_tool.pip as PiP reload( PiP ) loadout = PiP.jbPiP_UI() cmds.file( new=True, force=True ) self.assertEquals( loadout.newscene_callbackid, None ) # if starting from a command prompt, load unit test class instance if __name__ == "__main__": unittest.main()

From these examples, you can see I started with testing the results of early development stages such as moving files from my development path to the Maya script path, or just a simple import check, UI loading checks, etc.  Kind of a neat thing to note here is my unit tests are being ran from the windows command line to launch a standalone Maya session (no UI).  The problem with this is PiP is a UI based tool, so as I kept developing more tests I realized I could run some tests in command line but to run some specific tests I would need a normal Maya session.

The current beta release seems to have a few graphical glitches on certain computer setups - that and a few other "nice to haves" are the known issues that I am wanting to polish before I consider it complete. Anyway, that's all for now!