Spring!

Wow, It's been awhile since the last post. Most updates are going to FB, so if you know me, feel free to 'friend' me :)

A few updates since my last post...

I was fortunate enough to be part of the crew that got nominated for a VES award for best animated short for our Looney Tunes "Coyote Falls" short. It did not win, but to be nominated was an achievement in it's own. Our current set of shorts that we're working on are coming out so much better, so I feel like we have a good shot at getting nominated or winning again next year.

RiggingDojo is rocking it out. Lots of success stories with students, lots of returning students. Once work schedule settles down, i will be able to focus on it more, but in the meantime Brad, Chad, and our new mentors are doing a fantastic job.

and finally... i think this website needs an overhaul. i haven't put new work up in YEARS, and this design is from 2005 i think. Time to do something about that... uh... if i can find the time.

OS3, Looney Tunes, RiggingDojo

Just some updates: Open Season 3 has wrapped up at work, as well as the 3 road runner + coyote 3d (stereo) shorts! The first short played in front of Cats and Dogs 2 in the theaters, while the 2nd short will be playing in front of Legends of Guardians, which comes out at the end of this month. The 3rd short will play in front of Yogi Bear in December.

RiggingDojo is going great so far. We're about to start on session 4 this week! If you missed any of our live events, check out the archives as well as our facebook page for updates. Also, check me on facebook if you're so inclined - I update that more than this blog... perhaps there needs to be an app that sends 'updates' to facebook + blog + twitter, then it would be easier to keep everything updated :)

Mentoring and more!

Couple updates for everyone... i know it's been awhile.

First, we are currently rockin out on the 2nd session of Rigging Dojo (www.riggingDojo.com), after a successful first session! The students are great, and everyone is super excited to be learning from each other - including the mentors! Spots are already filling up for the next session, but fear not - we're working on ways to bring on more students.

On the work side of things, we're more than halfway through with Open Season 3, and it's looking awesome. We're also doing some Looney Tunes stereo 3D shorts, one of which will be in theaters very soon.

On the Maya side of things, 2011 has been released to subscription customers, and having played with it for a little bit, I must say that it is awesome. Best update they've had in years. Of course, as with any update, I'm starting to find some oddities that ...troublesome.

One thing that i've found out today is that if you're saving out a custom file type from a script/gui, Maya's new fileBrowserDialog is putting some restrictions on filetypes and the ability to select files that aren't in the standard list of types. Kinda hard to explain, but in short - when i'm saving out an XML file from a script, maya is forcing a standard file type to be in the name. so blah.xml is actually getting saved out as blah.ma.xml. Not cool.

More fun to come...

Also, if you are on facebook, be sure to look up RiggingDojo.com and become a fan! We have links from www.riggingDojo.com.

Rigging Dojo

Just wanted to announce on this blog that some friends and I have started up RiggingDojo.com, an online school for "teaching the art and science of character rigging". We are approaching it with the idea of giving each student a personalized education based on their skill level, their interests, and their needs based on what they want to do. We are currently beta testing, but are taking names down for those that are interested. Hopefully we will be gearing up to start a winter session in the beginning of 2010!

Stay tuned for more info...

It's HOT.

Texas. August. It's damn hot.

Of course, that isn't stopping us from cycling anywhere from 15 to 35 miles every morning. It does help that we're doing this at 6am, when it's only 80 degrees...

On the work side of things, we are rockin' and rollin' on Open Season 3. We are basically updated all the rigs from Open Season 2, fixing a bunch of issues, and making sure they have all the latest and greatest since the modular rigging system has been updated over the past year. We also are doing a bunch of new characters, and are lucky enough to have the help of Jason Osipa again! He is always a pleasure to work with.

Anyway, just felt the need to do a quick update on a late night. More news should be flowing soon...

cPoc fyi...

Just to note, and clarify, the closest point on curve script and node i mentioned is different from the one you'll find under create deformers - point on curve.

That particular point on curve deformer uses the curvePointConstraint command, which is basically constraining cvs (or partial cvs) to a locator.

My script/node will do the opposite - a locator/transform can be constrained to the curve, so if you have the curve skinned/deforming/moving, you can have something stick to the curve. again, its the same as the closestPointOnSurface node, but it works on curves.

anyway, just wanted to clarify since a couple people asked :)

Closest Point on Curve (script)

Here's a python script i wrote recently... closestPointOnCurve. as i previously posted, maya doesn't have a built in node for getting this info, so i wrote my own. this code below is just the *script* version; i'll post the plugin node version another time.

you would call this with a location (world space point) and a curve object. for example:

import jc_closestPointOnCurve as cpoc
cpoc.jc_closestPointOnCurve([0, 0, 0], "curve1")

what you would get returned is the parameterU along the curve, and then the worldspace position of that point along the curve.

import maya.OpenMaya as om
import maya.cmds as mc

# input curve
# input point
# output param
# output point

def jc_closestPointOnCurve(location, curveObject):
        
  curve = curveObject
        
        # put curve into the MObject
  tempList = om.MSelectionList()
  tempList.add(curve)
  curveObj = om.MObject()
  tempList.getDependNode(0, curveObj)  # puts the 0 index of tempList's depend node into curveObj
        
        # get the dagpath of the object
  dagpath = om.MDagPath()
  tempList.getDagPath(0, dagpath)
        
        # define the curve object as type MFnNurbsCurve
  curveMF = om.MFnNurbsCurve(dagpath)
        
        # what's the input point (in world)
  point = om.MPoint( location[0], location[1], location[2])
        
        # define the parameter as a double * (pointer)
  prm = om.MScriptUtil()
  pointer = prm.asDoublePtr()
  om.MScriptUtil.setDouble (pointer, 0.0)
        
  # set tolerance
  tolerance = .00000001
        
  # set the object space
  space = om.MSpace.kObject
        
  # result will be the worldspace point
  result = om.MPoint()
  result = curveMF.closestPoint (point, pointer,  0.0, space)
        
  position = [(result.x), (result.y), (result.z)]
  curvePoint = om.MPoint ((result.x), (result.y), (result.z))
        
  # creates a locator at the position
  mc.spaceLocator (p=(position[0], position[1], position[2]))
        
  parameter = om.MScriptUtil.getDouble (pointer)
        
  # just return - parameter, then world space coord.
  return [parameter, (result.x), (result.y), (result.z)]

feel free to email me any questions :)