Comments on: zooPickwalkAuthor:walk-through

By: david

david — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 11:40:08 +0000

Have a look at zooPickWalk.mel. There is a proc called zooSetPickwalkObj() that builds the attributes and connections.

By: PixL

PixL — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 04:04:02 +0000

David, thanks for the response.
I've taken a look over there.
Do you know how the zooPickWalkAuthor actually works?
I see that once it is assigned to an object, a ".message" attribute is added to the object and it is connected to a ".zooWalk*" attribute which is added to the target.
In the scene file, I see the establishment of the connection, ie:
connectAttr "nurbsTorus1.msg" "nurbsCone1.zooWalkdown";
However, when looking thru zooPickwalkAuthor.mel, I don't see how these attributes are created and assigned, nor do I see where the actual commands reside in the Maya file.
Do you know how these relationships are established by the script? I'm going to ask at the Google forum as well, but thought you might know.
Thanks again.

By: david

david — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 12:51:09 +0000

PixL, thanks for your kind words. I took your suggestion, but I added a keymaster page rather than a link to the old post (still the same content though).
I dont know much about the DNA setup. The export and import of pickwalk presets is not functional in the authoring UI. If you ask about this on the zoo forum at google groups, Hamish will probably be able to help you out.

By: PixL

PixL — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 19:57:52 +0000

Thanks much for posting these tutorials for the ZooTools.
As a new Maya user, scouring the web for learning materials, your tutorials are very helpful.
A question and a comment:
I discovered this tutorial when I found the Maya default pickwalking inadequate for animation.
As I setup a custom pickwalking scheme for blocking the animation of a character, I realized that I really need a more flexible system.
During blocking we need only a few controls, such as hip, spine, hands, elbows, feet and knees - a dozen or so controls. But when refining the animation we need many more - we might want to move from the hand into the fingers and back. We might have 50 or more controls. So we need separate pickwalking systems.
When I read the "DNA" section of the help file, I noticed that this tool could be used on "trigger" sets and then the pick would be transfered to the actual control objects.
Creating separate trigger sets would be an efficient approach for using multiple pickwalking sets (ie. sets for blocking, refinement, etc.) Do you know if it's still possible to use the DNA type setup? If so, could you outline how to approach creating this type of setup?
Commment:
You might want to add a link from your zooTools menu on the right side of your page to your "keymaster" tutorial.
Thanks again for all your tutorials - very generous of you to take the time to write and share them.