L3Library V1.3.1 for Maya (free)

[Madness]

Hey folks,

We have updated our free Maya tool library. L3Library ( http://www.lightstorm3d.com/tools/?page_id=834 ) and L3Deformer ( http://www.lightstorm3d.com/tools/?page_id=79 ) are now available for Maya 2013 and 2013.5 Windows. Maya 2009 and 2010 are no longer supported. L3Library now ships with an installation UI that automates the setup of L3Library and other tools like L3Deformer.

Geo Locator

One of the major new tools is the L3 Geo Locator that work's pretty much like Maya's follicles. You can use it to constraint geometry to polygon meshes, nurbs surfaces and nurbs curves using either UV coordinates or a vector projection onto a mesh or nurbs surface.

The node provides 6 wave and 6 noise generators to apply regular and irregular motion to xyz position and rotation axes.

The geo locator comes with integrated position and rotation dynamics, including gravity, per axis goals and axis locking.

The node provides various alignment methods, using surface normals/tangents, aiming, reference vectors and a motion vector for moving locators.

The geo locator provides a wheel computation mode for spherical and cylindrical objects. Wheel radius can be adjusted visually in Maya's viewport to match the actual wheel geometry. All rotation, orientation and alignment computations are fully automated. We have added extra controls to simulate spinning and sliding of wheels easily.

The node actually works without geometry, just using a transform connection. This allows to use the dynamics and wave/noise generator features within node hierarchies, e.g. to create dynamic or procedurally animated rigs. You can also use more advanced techniques like binding joints to a nurbs curve, using all the positioning and orientation features of the geo locator.

http://www.lightstorm3d.com/data_tools/screenshots/GL_WheelSetup.jpg

Here is a quick overview of tools contained in L3Library:

Rename Tool
Rename nodes, substring, add prefix/suffix, convert to upper/lower case and remove namespaces.

Projection Plane
Project a transform (point) onto a user definable plane. Returns intersection point and local angle value. Extensive viewport display options.

Annotation
Draw annotation in Maya's modeling view using any TrueType font installed on the system. Adjust pixel size, italic, underline, bold, color, alpha and offset attributes. Multiple text lines are supported.

Decompose Matrix
Matrix decomposition into translate, rotate, scale and shear components. Output matrix built from selected components.

Floating Shelf
Dockable floating shelf window with 10 user definable subshelves.

Setup
Automated installation of L3Library and other tools like L3Deformer. Create folders, copy files, backup existing files, direct links to dependency downloads, tool version check, Maya version and 32/64 bit check.

Python Libs
L3Library includes our complete Python library for node/attribute handling, UI automation and many more common utility functions. These libraries are currently undocumented.

Download and sample scenes are available at http://www.lightstorm3d.com/tools/?page_id=164.

We also assembled a new video showing some of the features that have been added over the past weeks at https://vimeo.com/57086596.

We got a lot of requests to release our software for OSX and Linux. We did some tests what it takes to develop our software cross platform, but unfortunately we do not have the resources to support an OS other than Windows at this time.

We will continue to extend L3Library and have a huge list of things that will be added to L3Deformer in a future release. Can't talk about details yet.

Please let us know if you would like see more specific or advanced sample scenes for L3Library and how the tools work out in production.

Best Regards,
Kay

Lightstorm3D

[n8skow]

Is there a separate link for L3Deformer?