Continue reading »]]> Hi everyone this is the last node I made for maya .
What the node does is making a connection that lets me control the object and best think is I can give a weight of the connection and avoiding any pop when the value change so it s fully controllable .

This was just the core of the node in version 2 I want to have multiple inputs and switching between inputs influence without having the object popping around the scene how it usually happen with constraints

here is a quick demo :

and here the download +source link :

http://www.giordanoanimator.com/download.html

if you wanna help me compiling it for other platform or maya versions just mail me or comment here

Continue reading »]]> Hi today the tip&trick will be about how to add a compound array attribute to our node.

THe basic idea is tho create an array attribute and then feed a compound attribute with it  using the addChild() method

         ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//INPUT  ATTRIBUTE
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

//Compounds's input  float
MFnNumericAttribute  numFn;
input =numFn.create("inputA","ia",MFnNumericData::kFloat);
numFn.setArray(TRUE);
addAttribute(input);

//input  Compoud

inputA= compA.create("inputs","i" );
compA.addChild(input);
compA.setArray(TRUE);
addAttribute(inputA);

Just rember to declare all the  needed MObject :

MObject input;
MObject inputA;

and to include all the needed headers.

Enjoy.
For more tips&tricks check my website :
http://www.giordanoanimator.com/tips.php?prog=1 ]]> http://www.giordanoanimator.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=237 0 http://www.giordanoanimator.com/blog/?p=231&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=maya-api-tip-creating-string-attribute http://www.giordanoanimator.com/blog/?p=231#comments Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:36:30 +0000 Giordi http://www.giordanoanimator.com/blog/?p=231 Hi everyone in this tip I’m gonna show you how create an attribute ables to recive string data

First of all we need to include a header in our node

#include MFnStringData.h>

for example in my save node I added an author attribute and set default value to a given string:

//Creating author attribute

MFnStringData stringFn;
MFnTypedAttribute authorA;
MOBject authorS stringFn.create("Type here the autor");
author = authorA.create("author","aut",MFnData::kString,authorS);
authorA.setStorable(true);
addAttribute(author);

Here we go

Continue reading »]]> Hi everyone ,

i wanna share with you my new plugin .

It s about vector dot product .

It was a great learning experience in both math and programming.

I had to build an external header in order to handle the numerous vector operation like dot product sum length and so on.

Here is a little demo.

Plugin features :
Dot product
max dot product
normalize dot and max dot product
Projection of vector to the other
Angle in-between
Angle in-between projected on world and custom planes

In the V2 I have implemented the projection on user custom axis so you can project on transformed system.

As default it s set at same maya world .

The plugin is free download with the source code included.

I hope you guys enjoy

C&C appreciated

download :

http://www.giordanoanimator.com/download.html

Continue reading »]]> When creating your node, you might need to add an attribute holding multiple fields like can be a position attribute or a vector attribute .

There are two main way in order to accomplish that (as far as i know ).

1) Compound attribute

2) Point attribute

The compound attribute let you creates many attributes and then group them together like in the example  1:

example 1 ) I created an output attribute for holding vector data

//Output vector attribute
//Creating 3 single attributes  vectorX,Y,Z
MFnNumericAttribute oVecXAttr;
oVecX= oVecXAttr.create("vectorX","vx",MFnNumericData::kFloat);
addAttribute(oVecX);

MFnNumericAttribute oVecYAttr;
oVecY= oVecYAttr.create("vectorY","vy",MFnNumericData::kFloat);
addAttribute(oVecY);

MFnNumericAttribute oVecZAttr;
oVecZ= oVecZAttr.create("vectorZ","vZ",MFnNumericData::kFloat);
addAttribute(oVecZ);

//Output vector compound attribute
//Group them togheter with a compound attribute
MFnCompoundAttribute FoVec;
oVec= FoVec.create("outputVector","ov");

//use addChild method to add our attributes to the compound attribute
FoVec.addChild(oVecX);
FoVec.addChild(oVecY);
FoVec.addChild(oVecZ);
addAttribute(oVec);

The point attribute make everything faster , you can achieve same result with way fewer lines of codes check example 2:

example 2)

//Create a numeric attribute function set

MFnNumericAttribute originFn;

 

// instead using create() we will use createPoint()
origin=originFn.createPoint("origin","o");
addAttribute(origin);

The main difference here is that using createPoint() method will automatically create  originX originY and originZ so if that s the goal you want to achieve I highly suggest using createPoint() method if you want to have attributes that are not X,Y,Z or have different names or are more than 3 use the compound attribute function set .

enjoy .
For more tips and tricks visit :
http://www.giordanoanimator.com/tips.php

Continue reading »]]> Hi everyone in this tip I will show you how to build a matrix variable and convert it into an MMatrix

Here is the full code :
In this example i m getting a worldMatrix and multiplying for myMatrix that is built out from a point in the space

MStatus statusM;
                MFnDependencyNode nodeFnWm;
                MPlug wMP = nodeFnWm.findPlug("worldMatrix");
                MObject wM ;
                wMP.getValue(wM);
                MFnMatrixData mData(wM);
                MMatrix value=mData.matrix(&statusM);
                double myMatrix[4][4]={( 1, 0 , 0, 0),
                                       ( 0, 1, 0, 0),
                                       ( 0, 0, 1, 0),
                                       ( 5, 0, 0, 1) };

                MMatrix myMMatrixFront(myMatrix);
                MMatrix result = value*myMMatrixFront;

Of course you need to include all the different modules now let see it step by step

                MFnDependencyNode nodeFnWm;
                MPlug wMP = nodeFnWm.findPlug("worldMatrix");
                MObject wM ;
                wMP.getValue(wM);
                MFnMatrixData mData(wM);

In this piece of code a plug has been created in order to get the world matrix then we convert the plug into a MMAtrix data

                double myMatrix[4][4]={( 1, 0 , 0, 0),
                                       ( 0, 1, 0, 0),
                                       ( 0, 0, 1, 0),
                                       ( 5, 0, 0, 1) };

Here we are building a Matrix from a point that had coordinated (5,0,0)

                MMatrix myMMatrixFront(myMatrix);
                MMatrix result = value*myMMatrixFront;

Now that your matrix is built you just need to pass the matrix in the MMatrix constructor and your done . You are ready to do your MMatrix math

For more tips and tricks visit :

Continue reading »]]> thanks to my freaking awesome web master thwe page maya API tips and tricks is finally aveliable!

The link is here :

http://www.giordanoanimator.com/tips.php

I like better to use c++ for API , and this is the language I’m using to learn them , so i will constantly adding tips and tricks in the C++ section during my learning journey .
The python api section has been created too with the hope other tech artist will come there and add their own tips and tricks!
Enjoy!

Continue reading »]]> Hi eryone this is a rayCast plugin that has been showed in the Maya plugin workshop by CGTALK.
I learned this great stuff from the awesome Karl Stiefvater.

I used this plugin as a base to build on top and upgraded it adding more stuff .
I created 2 more custom nodes .
A openGl locator shaped as an arrow
and a a vectorNode that get as input 2 matrices and do some math about vectors

Special thanks to my friends an mentors that helps me out make my way through this messy c++ and API world.

TO DO :
In the next version of this pluging i would love to add Reflection of the ray

here is a little demo:

C&C really appreciated