Animating in Maya with Control Rigs, Baking, and Exporting into Brawlbox

[Eternal Yoshi]

Alright, a couple of problems:

First, when I tried to go to Edit>Key>Bake Simulator

I wasn't able to find the options for the Bake Simulator. Instead, it just ran through the animation itself without giving me any options to change.

Click the Box next to the Bake Simulator text in that menu.

And also, when I tried to export it, I couldn't find "animExport" (which is what I believe is the setting in your export setting pic).

I am using Maya 2014.

You need to enable the AnimExport plugin in the Plugin manager.
Window > Settings/Preferences > Plug-in Manager - enable the AnimImportExport and make sure load and auto-load is checked.

[Large Leader]

Click the Box next to the Bake Simulator text in that menu.
You need to enable the AnimExport plugin in the Plugin manager.
Window > Settings/Preferences > Plug-in Manager - enable the AnimImportExport and make sure load and auto-load is checked.

Thanks for the response.

Also, when you are taking out the extra bones that flatline on the graph thingy, they disappear from the Outliner window, correct?

[KingJigglypuff]

Well this is embarrassing...

I'm telling people who want to animate to use Maya, but I can't even figure out how to do simple rotations...

I'm trying to copy and paste the rotations/translations/scales from a character's Wait1, but the edits don't apply properly.

Do I pose before applying a control rig?

[Eternal Yoshi]

You aren't supposed to move or rotate the boneset before you apply the control rig; for the control rig to work properly, the model and boneset need to be in the bind pose, AKA T-stance.

Copy pasta values from Brawlbox isn't going to give you the exact same pose.

Thanks for the response.

Also, when you are taking out the extra bones that flatline on the graph thingy, they disappear from the Outliner window, correct?

No the bone doesn't disappear, just it's keyframes.

[KingJigglypuff]

You aren't supposed to move or rotate the boneset before you apply the control rig; for the control rig to work properly, the model and boneset need to be in the bind pose, AKA T-stance.

Copy pasta values from Brawlbox isn't going to give you the exact same pose.

I see.

Also, when selecting a bone (that's in the IK Control Rig) from the Outlier, the rotation is messed up. Am I only supposed to select Control Rig bones from the IK Definition? If you don't understand what I'm saying, then I can take a screencap.

[Eternal Yoshi]

Don't touch any of the original model bones when the Control Rig is active until AFTER baking.
If you're going to choose something to rotate in the control rig, I recommend choosing the control rig objects from the Character Control tab on the right side of the screen.

If you're concerned about TransN, that can wait until AFTER baking. What I would do is move the Hip control like you would HipN, bake, then cut and paste the values from HipN to TransN. Just remember to key the axis when you do so.

[KingJigglypuff]

Don't touch any of the original model bones when the Control Rig is active until AFTER baking.
If you're going to choose something to rotate in the control rig, I recommend choosing the control rig objects from the Character Control tab on the right side of the screen.

Alright. Thanks for the input.

One last question for now...

I know there's a Control Rig tutorial for tails that was posted a few pages ago, but is it possible to have a Control Rig for wings?

[Large Leader]

No the bone doesn't disappear, just it's keyframes.

That's odd. I pressed backspace in the graph window (with the bone selected) and it removed it from the Outliner...

[Eternal Yoshi]

Check your selection. You may have accidentally selected more than you think.

Alright. Thanks for the input.

One last question for now...

I know there's a Control Rig tutorial for tails that was posted a few pages ago, but is it possible to have a Control Rig for wings?

I'm sorry but I don't know of a definite way to make a control rig for wings at this time....
I KNOW it's possible though.

http://www.paulneale.com/technical/bellaSara/bellaSara.htm

Maybe this link can help?

[Gamma Ridley]

That's odd. I pressed backspace in the graph window (with the bone selected) and it removed it from the Outliner...

Instead of hitting backspace or delete, select Edit in the top left of the graph editor and hit Delete in the drop-down. That should do it. Maybe.

[Large Leader]

Instead of hitting backspace or delete, select Edit in the top left of the graph editor and hit Delete in the drop-down. That should do it. Maybe.

Perfect, it worked.

Now only one more problem.

I animated Tidus going into the squat wait animation. It exported fine and plays in BrawlBox fine, but I think I might have taken out too many of the bones during the "delete it if it has no translation"

Should I remove the LShoulderN bone if LShoulderJ has rotations/translations/etc?

I have a feeling I shouldn't (I'm assuming that the rotations would go back to the original T-pose rotation).

Is my assumption correct?

[KingJigglypuff]

The animExport isn't showing up for me (it's not in the dropdown menu) when I go to the export selected settings. I have Maya 2014. Is there a script that's needed?

Edit: Never mind. I found it.

But now that I exported it, the rotations of certain bones are off. It only exported the X Rotations for my character's tail and wing bones.

[Large Leader]

I animated Tidus going into the squat wait animation. It exported fine and plays in BrawlBox fine, but I think I might have taken out too many of the bones during the "delete it if it has no translation"

Should I remove the LShoulderN bone if LShoulderJ has rotations/translations/etc?

I have a feeling I shouldn't (I'm assuming that the rotations would go back to the original T-pose rotation).

Is my assumption correct?

Just tested, and this seems to be the case.

Man, I'm totally loving Maya

[Large Leader]

Okay, I'm having a problem when trying to animate flips.

I want to animate the person doing a backflip. So, to test it, I made the first key frame the squat. Then 10 frames later, I animated a complete 360 degree turn in the x-axis direction. Key framed that, and played the animation.

But for some reason, the person doesn't move at all. I checked the attribute setting (or wherever the Translation and Rotations are) and there is no Rotation Change in the hip bone.

Is there any way to enter in rotations manually for bones? I've been trying to and it never seems to work for me.

[Eternal Yoshi]

The thing about those Control Rigs is that with the when you rotate something past 180, it'll snap to -180 and then back to 0 when you do a 360 instead of it passing 180. If you want a 360 spin, you need to have some in between keyframes on the control rig with rotations like 90/180/270 and then 360.