Around the Corner

Add your new context in UV Texture Editor

Well, it’s pretty easy to add a command into Maya, and I also believe most of our plugin developers know how to add a context/tool within Maya (Context is actually presented with the name “tool” in Maya), if you are not familiar with that, please refer the Command plug-ins section of help doc for the details. In general, contexts in Maya are modes which define how mouse interaction will be interpreted. A context can execute commands, modify the current selection,... Read more →

Autodesk Memento now available for Mac

My favourite mesh generation and manipulation tool, Autodesk Memento, is now available (in Beta) for the Mac. I’ve been part of the Alpha programme for the OS X version for some time: admittedly not very actively, but I did install a number of builds and report an error or two. I’m very happy to see the Mac version is now joining its Windows sibling in Beta. Both versions can be downloaded and installed from this page. The model shown at... Read more →

Support Soft Selection with custom MPxComponentShape

MPxComponentShape allows the implementation of new user-defined shapes using components, however all the UI related feature (such as selection/drawing) has to be implemented with another class MPxSurfaceShapeUI. In the MPxSurfaceShapeUI class, there are select() and draw() functions you need to implement for your custom shape. The Maya devkit has 2 examples that demonstrates how to use this class: apiMeshShape and apiSimpleShape. The apiSimpleShape shows to how to use MPxSurfaceShapeUI to work with MPxComponentShape to achieve component selection and drawing. But... Read more →

Using augmented reality to preview the output of Project Pinocchio

A huge thanks to Kean Walmsley, who was previously working with me in the ADN group but now an AutoCAD API architect based in Neuchatel - Switzerland, and provide the original article for this post. Project Pinocchio is available on Autodesk Labs. Project Pinocchio is an online character generator that helps you “create, customize, and download your very own rigged 3D characters from a catalog of over 100 body types, outfits, hairstyles, and physical attributes in a few simple steps.”... Read more →

123D Creature

123D Creature is a creative modeling App that lets you build, sculpt, paint, render and 3D print original 3D characters directly on your iPad. You can check out a teaser video on YouTube here App Store page with features and additional images here Read more →

Custom Shapes in the Maya API

A user-defined surface shape is one of the most complex types of nodes that can be implemented within Maya. A number of supporting classes are required, and a number of virtual methods must be properly implemented to get your class working right with the various parts of Maya. The goal of this article is to break down the process of creating the shape into manageable chunks, and to provide details of each step of the process so that you can... Read more →

Maya’s Deformer Architecture

This post is the second of a series of post which will talk about public information and source code available on Maya algorithms. Not sure if you noticed it, but the first one was on the Maya Fluid Shader. Recently we had a request for more information about MFnSkinCLuster class as the documentation does not provide all the information about how the whole thing is working and the Maya devkit samples only access an already existing skinned mesh vs create.... Read more →

Maya MMeshIntersector and memory

Before anything 'Happy 4th of July' to our american readers! In the documentation of MMeshIntersector::create(MObject &meshObject, const MMatrix &matrix), it says "This method creates the data required by the intersector. It is a heavy operation that should be called only when necessary." Internally, that class will tessellate the mesh, if it hasn't already been, and will build an octree for its triangles, which is going to be at least as heavy as the mesh itself and probably heavier. However there... Read more →