After almost 25 years of maya one would hope that there was a node dedicated to adjusting objects for animation aka the controller.
We, rigging ppl are all doing the same redundant task of creating controller objects by abusing 'curve' objects, locators, or even geometry (cf Metahuman).
Please add a native controller transform node that does the task of providing a visible selection object that generates a gizmo and allows for manipulation outputting values.
the controller class cmds.controller() exists and even a node for selecting them but nothing extensive for actual creation of controllers is implemented.
HIK has controller nodes (hik IK effector) that are more or less are what we need (see attached), but is not abstracted for general usage. So please extend/create the following:
- a transform controller node that can live outside the dag but be represented inside (parented) for export purposes
- if dag, they should be made non cyclic so they do not cause for double evaluations when controlling upward stream objects.
- a node that has a enum with default selectable shapes that are adjustable (like in the hik) with scale, rot, normal, position...
- allow custom shape descriptions by referencing or setting a shape or geo attr.
- allow for conventional movement and 'non movement' by the gizmo so it outputs only values and does not influence its own transform matrix (like with useAlternateGX on the HIK). This option is very useful for animation triggered by predefined behavior where the control needs to only follow (see attachment), ie. for facial controllers.
- have a input matrix so they can follow something (ie. a bone) and focus correctly
- allow toggling of different type of gizmo's based on conventional shortcuts, but also allow different control types ie. volume slider, XY 2D , checkbox/radio, blend space control (like in UE), or RBF multi states
- have pre-selection highlight option
- do the pixar style invisible hover selection, based on the tagging of geometry faces
- should be exportable (fbx...)
- support negative scaling
I would opt to make them as fast as possible by putting them outside the conventional dag hierarchy so they are more abstract and live on a independent evaluation level but be configurable to the save scene (independent of the maya user UI).
Desktop 2022.06.08 - 14.41.26.01.mp4
