Clean Joint Tool

Okay, I cannot take full credit for this tool a talent coworker and tech artist Jason, made a quick script to move a joint from underneath a transform and parent it to the correct joint. I took it from there and made it so it cleaned out the rotation scale information  on the rig as a whole. This way your joint will be clean as you work and animate.

Clean Joint tool from Jeremy Mack on Vimeo.

Maya VFX Animator

So I've hade this crazy idea for a animation for vfx's system in Maya.   A way to make quick vfx animation. that would include a wide array of shapes and controls, like the on you had on rigs but better.  because in this one you can animate and create at the same time. a degrade stystem.  I also really like procedural generation. So I built a Solar System! 

So with this quick python script I have a bit of a fun starting point for both. Stay tuned to my blog.

Object Spawn Tool

The Object spawn tool was meant to be a quick tool to layout buildings on a grid.  After the assets were made you could quickly spawn a grid of locators, to then be replaced with the object with what ever parameters were entered into the tool and it worked pretty well. 

Mirror Object Tool

So if you you use maya like me I am sure you have used duplicate special at one time or another. while it is a really nice and robust tool 9 times out of 10 I am just duplicating across an axis. So I just made a simpler and faster tool for doing just that. clicking instead of typing -1 will shave off a few seconds while working so I am pleased with it.

The Original idea for the tool I did not come up with I saw some one else have the tool on there blog and I though it would be a good excersie in making a simple mel tool.  http://ttrentlyta.blogspot.com/2011/10/mel-mirror-on-pivot-tool.html

So Here is my version free to use.

/*          *** Mirror Object Tool v 1.0.0 ***
     The tool is very simple it makes a duplicate or instance of
 the object you has selected over the pivot point in the
 "x", "y", or "z" Axis.      */
 
 // checks if there is a window with this ID in memory and if so delets it. also ' != `
 if (`window -exists M_Window`) { deleteUI -window M_Window; }

window -title "Mirror Object Tool" -widthHeight 300 100 M_Window;

formLayout -numberOfDivisions 50 myForm;
    radioButtonGrp
        -numberOfRadioButtons 3
        -label "select type"
        -labelArray3 "x" "y" "z"
        -select 1
    D_Btn;
    button -label "Duplicate object" -command "duplAxis()" myBtn1;
    button -label "Instance object" -command "instAxis()" myBtn2;
 
    formLayout -edit
     -attachForm D_Btn "top" 10
     -attachForm D_Btn "left" -50
     -attachForm myBtn1 "bottom" 10
     -attachForm myBtn1 "left" 10
     -attachForm myBtn2 "bottom" 10
     -attachForm myBtn2 "left" 100
myForm;
showWindow M_Window;
   
     proc duplAxis() {
     if (`radioButtonGrp -q -select D_Btn` == 1) { duplicate -rr; scale -r -1 1 1; }
     if (`radioButtonGrp -q -select D_Btn` == 2) { duplicate -rr; scale -r 1 -1 1; }
     if (`radioButtonGrp -q -select D_Btn` == 3) { duplicate -rr; scale -r 1 1 -1; }
}

 proc instAxis() {
     if (`radioButtonGrp -q -select D_Btn` == 1) { instance; scale -r -1 1 1; }
     if (`radioButtonGrp -q -select D_Btn` == 2) { instance; scale -r 1 -1 1; }
     if (`radioButtonGrp -q -select D_Btn` == 3) { instance; scale -r 1 1 -1; }
}