The Digital Workspace of Scott Englert

I mentioned before that I have been slowly working on an extension to MotionBuilder’s python classes that make things easier and add more functionality. I been playing with different ways to implement these features and I think I found the best way that makes it very easy to attach without reinventing the whole pyfbsdk module. Thanks to a python guru at work that gave me the idea, I can now attach my own classes to MotionBuilder’s native ones so your code does not have to change, but can immediately begin to take advantage of the new functionality.

Below is a sample of the direction I am taking. I am still putting together all the pieces and finishing up a few other areas before I release my prototype code. I am dubbing the name PyMobu as the project name. So that will be the name until I can think of something better.

I have been working with MotionBuilder for a few years and was constantly frustrated by writing any tools for it. Rather than ranting, I wanted to write a positive memo about Mobu 2010.

I was very happy with the improvements going from version 7.5 to 2009, however I never really got to work in 2009 but the time has come again to do some more work and take advantage of the latest version. I don’t know if I should be excited or disappointed that it took this long to provide these improvements. All I can say is that I am glad I can write cleaner code and fewer workarounds. There is still a lot of simple things that are lacking that I am just still confused why they are missing though. But progress is progress I guess.

Hopefully it will catch up to the other software out there and have a larger community. So I take my hat off to the Autodesk team at another decent upgrade rather than just re-releasing the same thing with just bug fixes.

It’s been too long since I have posted here. I guess the biggest news is that A Christmas Carol is finally out in theaters. So go see it! I only had a small part in it since when I started working at the studio I jumped right in on getting Mars Needs Moms rolling. Which is really what I have been working on ever since.

I have nothing really else to update on other than I been working in my spare time on writing a wrapper for MotionBuilder’s Python implementation because I feel there is a lot of work needed to be more user friendly and also provide more functionality. Some ideas I’m borrowing from Maya’s commands. But it’s in the early stages so when I get a little further and some testing on the latest versions of MotionBuilder I’ll make it public to download. Maybe that will give me the incentive to keep working on it. The main reason why I am developing it is due to the ever changing structure for every release which breaks your tools every version that comes out. So I’m making my own wrappers that I can rely on and not have to go through and update all my scripts. The other reason is I am inspired by PyMel and feel there is a need for a more intuitive tool that works from a production standpoint.

That’s it for now, until next time.. or year..

I recently bought an Acer Aspire One netbook since I wanted a small portable computer to take with me when I travel or just don’t want to be tied to my destkop at home. It came pre-installed with Windows XP which is fine by me, but one of the reasons I bought it was to try a Linux version called Ubuntu which recently seems to be getting some popularity. Ubuntu works pretty well with the AO and its been a long time since I used Linux so I thought I would check it out and see if it was better or at least faster than Windows.

It’s been a while since I have tinkered with dual booting operating systems and partitioning drives, so it took me a little longer than usual to get both Ubuntu and Windows to share the same drive, but finally got them both up and running. I actually installed the Netbook Remix version of Ubuntu which alters the look so it fits better on the smaller screen (very nicely done). Now, the last time I remember using Linux was about 6 or 7 years ago and remember the constain pain of things not working properly or having to run several commands to install software, or even trying to find help or documentation for a problem.

Well not much has changed in my opinion. I’m not calling Linux a bad operating system, but just still how un-user friendly it still remains. My point being if the Linux community really wanted to grab the attention of average user, they need to have a simple way to install software and not have to google for help on all the errors they get when typing in commands to just run an application. I know most people would just give up or not install anything after the first hurtle of having to open the terminal. I don’t like having to type a command for everything I want to do to fix a problem with a new driver. It seems I’m always forcing Linux to not use what it came with but use these “other” drivers that fixes the too many bugs that you get. The AO works pretty good with Ubuntu after the intall, however still many things don’t work or are unstable which you spend hours hunting down help and drivers all over the internet. My sound barely works, my microphone either doesn’t or is so distorted its worthless, and the video playback is often choppy or slow. I would just like to see more advancement since 7 years ago (which there is a lot), but still is plagued by having to know more than the average user to get the thing running and having the patience to fix things when they break.

What it all boils down to since I have both operating systems installed is what has Linux brought to the table over Windows. The answer is not a whole lot. I more often use Windows since its not any slower and it can do all the jobs I need it to do. I’ll definitely keep Ubuntu installed since its interesting to try new things with the machine since you can have so much control over it, plus I support open source software and what the community is all about.

This is kind of a random post, but something I wanted to write to keep this site fresh.

When I first heard that Maya 2009 would finally come with animation layer support, I thought there finally is a really good feature that many animators crave in their animation software. I recently been working on some simple tools working with animation but adding additional options for using layers. So far I am sort of let down by how the layers were implimented and how much of a headache it is to do common things with it. Just adding a couple layers to a single option creates this nasty web in the hypergraph which is hard to properly trace and sort the connections. The scripting functions for animation layers are weak and equally confusing. For example, you must select objects to add to the layer rather than in the command, pass along a list of object names.  Copying and pasting keys from one object to another via copyKeys and pasteKeys comannds do not have options for specifying a layer. You must select the layer first before each operation, but there are still some catches. Personally, I would have completely changed how the layers work in Maya, but since like most new things Autodesk introduce are far from polished, I have to find work arounds to get the results I want.

I know this seems like a rant, and in a way it is. Maya is probably one of the best public animation software packages and it makes me wonder why they released this feature with limited support. I won’t hold my breathe for any complete rewrites, but I’m hoping maybe someone will write their own layering plugin and share it. This makes me seem I dislike Autodesk which is far from the truth, but this one of bigger things they added to the software in the animation side and it was kind of a let down.

I’ll try to post some of the information and tips soon for anyone else who is running into the same questions and confusion as I was as I haven’t found any resources online yet.

Anyone else want to share their thoughts, please leave a comment or contact me.

I was trying to think of a scripting related topic that would be useful to talk about and thought I should show my support toward PyMel. Maya’s python integration in my opinion falls short of what it should be. They blended syntax of object oriented programming with the procedural style of MEL. Which, for me, does not make any sense since there is no real advantage in using python except the ability to create and use other python modules. But luckily someone already decided to step up and develop a python package that is a lot closer to what Maya’s python should have been. Its name, of course is PyMel. Best of all its free and open source so you can download it and enjoy it for no cost.

I use to be a die hard MEL fan since I was working with it for so long, and when Maya added python support I didn’t see too big of an advantage but when I made the switch and was shown PyMel, I no longer use Maya’s native modules and instead I use PyMel’s. Sure there are still a few bugs and has not released an official ‘version 1′, but its already made my code easier and cleaner. It has also improved my knowledge of python by breaking down the code and understanding how it all works.

My thanks to everyone involved with developing it. I encourage anyone who is using Maya’s python to stop and give this a try and see what it can offer you and make your life easier.

Goto PyMel Google Code Page

Right now at ImageMovers Digital, everyone is working hard to get the the finish line of our first feature film, A Christmas Carol that is coming out in November. Disney has a great marketing team and is doing all sorts of interesting ways to spread the word about this film. Disney actually bought a train and is going to tour around the U.S.  to show a preview of the film (in steroscopic 3D of course) and will be pulling several cars full of interesting things about the film.

So if you are in the area when the train arrives, stop by the train station and take a look. Unfortunately, I didn’t really work on this on film as I started on the next animation we are working on, but I have seen some really amazing work and very proud of our studio.

http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/christmascaroltraintour/

Description: This is an advanced eye rig with lots of useful controls that may be handy with working with the eyes during animation. Some of the key features of this rig are:

• Two types of eye controls, Joystick and a “Look At” controller with blending between the two
• A “convergence” control to make the eyes cross inward
• Dynamic parent switching on the “Look At” controller
• Custom scripts that go along with this rig for instant, no blending, switching between the controls and also a instant switching with no blending for changing the parent on the “Look At” control.

The biggest thing about this rig is how easy it is to control where the eyes are looking and having the control to move them in however feel most comfortable.

Hello, and welcome to this tutorial of how to create a Maya set driven key inside MotionBuilder using a relation constraint. This will go through the steps and explain a little about how its done. This tutorial is aimed at intermediate MotionBuilder users who are familiar with some basic constraining and what a set driven key in Maya is and knows how to look at one in the graph editor.

So I have been thinking about my options on how I want to rebuild my site and how much time it will take. So I decided to go the short route and try out wordpress after hearing some good things about it. So far it seems really easy to add content and also switch out the themes easily without having to copy all the old content over each time. So we’ll see…

Stand by while I migrate my old work over to this new system and hopefully it will be more friendly and enjoyable to visit.