Sculpt Inbetween Editor 1.0
Ok, here we go with the release of this tool. If you have been following the previous post you probably have notice that I changed the name from Sculpt Inbetween Manager to Sculpt Inbetween Editor. Well, I have to be honest that I have some concerns of what you probably will deal with using this tools because might not be easy to understand right away but I can really say that I really try to make it the most intuitive powerful and reliable tool to sculpt not only correctives in the pose but also add inbetweens and make this target even more important. I’m sure that people will find bugs, hopefully nothing too crazy but if that happens, send me the error message so I can try to fix it on my spare time. Save your work before and during the usage of this tool and keep in mind that I used a hack to let the UNDO working in sync with maya scene so don’t expect that it will work all the time. Well, I don’t want to explaing all the usage here now but I can say that I will be posting more documentation in Images, text or videos soon.
Compatible: Windows / Linux / MacOs
Maya2012 or above required
To install:
– Place the script files into the maya’s user scripts folder
Ex: C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents\maya\scripts (Windows)
– Place the icon files into the maya’s user icons folder
Ex: C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents\maya\MAYAVERSION\prefs\icons (Windows)
-To automatically install the icon of the tool into the selected current shelf go to the Maya’s bottom mel command line and type
in this order pressing ENTER to each command below:
rehash
dslSie_install
Those are the videos that I made in Beta version witch was not release to the public.
The videos has no audio
thank you for this amazing tool. this saves a lot of time and effort. wish i got hands on this tool a long time back. you are a genius.
Buenas tardes Daniel, esta genial el iseño de tu herramienta, su uso es muy facil solo que no he podido hacer los miror en hombros, hace falta algo en tu video de explicacion?, De antemano gracias por tu respuesta, estoy con roblemas con ello desde hace rato
Hi Daniel,
Thanks so much for your great tool! It makes my life a lot easier.
One question: Have you tried using it with Maya 2016 Extension 2?
It gives me a fatal error every time I press the Inbetween-R button and I’m wondering if I’m the only one.
Thanks again,
Niels
Hi Niels, glad to hear that it worked for you, at least for a while!! 🙂 Sorry for the bug but I’ve been a bit out of this personal project lately but I guess I can just release the version 2.0(99% working). I was planning to release it long time ago but I never did because I didn’t wanted to released without the documentation that I also never did!! …But I guess I will just skip this part and release anyway!
Yeah, I’ve tried the 2016 ext 2 and all I can say is that I’m very pleased that they finally added this functionality. I had the chance to meet some of Autodesk engineers some time ago in the company I work and some people that knows my tool and I mentioned about this particular functionality(In-between) to be in the next Maya version and they really listened, so thanks for that Autodesk!!! 🙂 …this new Autodesk tool might gonna do a much better job than my tool! 🙂
Hi Daniel,
Thanks for your reply! Very psyched about the Extension 2 functionality!
Still, I’d love it if you released version 2.0 with documentation or not. 🙂
Your tool rocks! Thank you!
Niels
Hey Daniel !
This tool is really great, I’ve been using it in my workflow for quite a while now. However I started working on 2016.5 and I’m experiencing the exact same bug as Niels Kleinheinz (fatal error when using Inbetween-R). Do you have plans on releasing the new version or at least a hint on how why it crashes ? Honnestly I could do without the documentation, your tool is well designed and intuitive enough.
Thanks in advance !
Hi Guillaume,
Thanks for the report on this also. I guess I have to say the second version of this tool is a re-do in many ways of the code and functionalities. It is a more focused version in target management. I removed few functionalities like combination targets from it, since this part isn’t necessary related to blendshape management. I will gonna take a look into this and I will release it soon. To be honest, I thought that nobody was using my tool anymore after the new inbetween management that autodesk released in the 2016.5.
Hi Daniel,
Your tool is still very much relevant and useful. It is in many ways more flexible than Maya’s Shape Editor in 2016.5 and up. Also I still experience crashes using Maya’s Shape Editor and your tool worked pretty much flawlessly.
So I’m glad to hear that you’re working on a 2.0 version that will be compatible with 2016.5 and up and am looking forward to its release!
Thanks for all your effort!
Niels
hey there! i’ve been using your tool trying to get a hang of it, but seems like there might be bugs in it. when i try to mirror deltas to another set driven key it gets really funky. it will give me this error also : setAttr() argument after * must be a sequence, not NoneType. It worked the first time, but the second time around no luck. Could you help me understand why that might happen and if there’s a solution? Thanks mucho!
Hi Artslife7, I’m currently not very close to this personal project anymore but I guess I will just release the version 2.0(99% ready) that I’ve been postponing for a long time and maybe help some people like you that have been using my tool, thanks a lot for using it. By the way, have you had the change to try Maya 2016 ext2 witch finally have inbetween support in it! 🙂
Thank you for making my night a lot easier ! =)
Sweet, glad that helps. 🙂
Hi dear Daniel and very thanks for your great plugin. I have some question. In my rigs I have a blend shape and a skin cluster above that. I often use local rigging on my blend shapes. so my character deformation blend between skin cluster and blend shape. I want to use corrective blend shape when both of them applied to the mesh. can your script help me? Just extracting the sculpted mesh for a new blend shape enough for me.
Yes, you can use this tool to apply any new sculpt you have to your skinned character in any pose and it will work and to extract the sculpted shapes of your character you can try the RESTORE button right side of the ID’s of the corrective shapes in the UI. This will regenerate a new mesh with your sculpt. Don’t forget to delete this mesh in case you want to apply new sculpt work on top of it otherwise it wont work.
I love this tool, really awesome work. However, today it has decided to not work after a couple of months of trucking along without issue (well lots of crashes, weird glitches and stuff – nothing a restart didn’t fix) but today this…
# Error: RuntimeError: file C:/Users/Cam/Documents/maya/scripts\dslDeltaOptions.py line 64: Object’s name ‘Processing’ is not unique. #
I change the name of the window in the script and it still errors. Any ideas?
I guess this might be a conflict with another tool you’re probably using? I will be releasing a version 2 of this tool and hopefully this might gonna go away. For now, if you can isolate the usage of this version to not causing conflict. Questio, if you start a new maya, and just open a sphere with a blendShape applied, and if you open the tool, those problems still appear? Please let me know! Thanks
Hey daniel, i was trying to install your program on Mac, but i couldn’t. There’s anyway how to install this for the Maya version of Mac Os?
Hey Gustavo, it should work fine on Mac also… what’s the problem trying to load this in your mac?
Daniel, I have the same problem… could please say the steps to install on Maya – Mac OSX?
Thank you!
Hi Daniel, great tool.
It would be really interesting to know how you get working the delta extraction, whats the math behind it?, thank you for sharing it.
Hey ramairou, thanks! 🙂
Actually it’s not too complicated to be honest, it’s just a bit tricky to visualize at first. Maya out of the box, pretty much gives you a way forward already to show you what happens in a deformed geometry when you move a point in the target right? With this in mind you can now come to a conclusion that what you see when you move a point in the target is a result of a transformation matrix(resulted form the deformation) being applied to the vector. To revert this(where you gonna be able to see what happens to the target points when you have the points moved in the deformed geo) you will need to inverse the same transformation matrix you have found for each individual vector, of course, and multiply to the sculpt delta(difference between the deformed shape and your deformed sculpt shape) and you will have the inverse deformation shape.
vectorResult = vectorSculpt * invertedTransformationMatrix. When I’ve heard “transformation matrix” for points during geometry deformation, the answer came naturally but not the way to calculate this as fast as python can do, I guess finding this method it was my biggest challenge in this particular tool. I recommend you to take a brief research about transformation matrices and understand what they do and you probably will visualize better what I tried to explain. 🙂
Olá Daniel Lima, sua ferramenta é fantástica. É muito prática. No Maya 2014 quando tento dar um “auto mirror” na corretiva, que tem o sufixo “rf”, aparece o seguinte erro: # Error: RuntimeError: file C:/Users/Operador/Documents/maya/2014-x64/scripts\dslDeltaOptions.py line 64: Object’s name ‘Processing’ is not unique. Tem alguma idéia pra solucionar?
A mensagem de erro desapareceu quando ajustei a geometria, não estava simétrica.
Where’s 2.0??? I demand it.
Lol!! 🙂 That’s right riggerman, I have to go back to finish this. I was planning to make a documentation before that but I guess I will skip this again and just release the tool. 😛
Hey Daniel! Thank you very much for making this amazing tool public. I’m not sure how often you check this, but I have run into an error when using your script. I feel like an idiot because this is probably a user error. I started off by posing my character/rig. I then selected the mesh and opened your tool. I can see that your tool is recognizing the base blendshape and can see the corresponding blendshapes. However, when I click on “New Corrective” I receive the following error “# Error: RuntimeError: No object(s) to duplicate # .” I’ve even tried testing your script on a poly sphere that was skinned to a single joint (with no blendshapes existing) and still receive that error. I’m not sure why it isn’t recognizing the object because I have the object selected in your window as well as on the grid. Did I miss a step?
Hey Mike, I’m glad that it’s working to some people, but I’m sorry to hear that it didn’t for you, at least yet! 🙂 I have to say that I’m a bit puzzled also with your bug. It can be so many things like at this point; The usage of another tool which contains a callback function that might be conflicting with dslSie or duplicate name clash. My options for now can be something that it’s related to multiple shapes and origShape in your geometry. That’s strange because you said you tested in a sphere also with a new skinCluster and still didn’t work… which maya version you have? Tell me what happen when you follow these steps:
1) Open a new maya session
2) Create a new polygon sphere (default values)
3) create one singleJoint in the center of the sphere
4) select the joint and then the sphere
5) Apply Skin
6) copy the sphere and with this new duplicate apply as a maya blendShape (front of Chain option)
7) open dslSie
8) New target
…I know you said you’ve done this but just to make sure you did all these steps exactly this way because this is suppose to work with no problem. Please let me know what happens.
Thanks
Thank you very much for getting back to me. I’ve tried this process in both 2014 and 2013 (student version). Both error out “# Error: ValueError: No object matches name: pSphere3 #.” I’m assuming the “New Corrective” button duplicates the object (which would bring pSphere3 into play), but then somehow loses it…? I’d be happy to send the rig your way if you’d like to take a peak. It’s driving me crazy because your tool worked perfectly for my MFA thesis a year ago and I’d really love to use your tool again. Thanks for helping me troubleshoot. Feel free to shoot me an email if you’d like to see the rig.
Do you think it could be a version issue? I used 2012 for my thesis and I can’t seem to get it to work in 2013 or 2014. Thoughts?
I send you an email!
Hi Mike,
I found in your scene that you have chash names. If you simply change the name of the group where the skin geometry is located to be different from the mesh name or vice-verse the tool will work just fine. I consider this a bug or a bad implementation on my end. 🙂 I’m working in a new version where those problems are solved and hopefully we won’t see things like that happening again, just other problems, I’m sure about this! 🙂 By the way, can you tell me things on this tool that you use most, and other things you’re not sure about it how to use it or just don’t use it at all?
Thanks
Thank you so much for your help. I knew it was probably a user error on my part. I can’t believe I did that… Such a simple error. Your tool works perfectly. It was totally my fault.
So far, I’ve really only explored the addition of corrective blendshapes. I love that I can pose the character and make corrections. One of the best parts is that I can continuously make in between corrections as the character reaches the pose. Mirroring the blendshape is extremely handy as well.
I still need to test and see the differences between the “Inbetween-R”, “Projection-R”, “Flatten-R”, and “Basic” options.
Thanks again for everything. This tool is amazing!
Cool, thanks for the feedback Mike!
Big D. Slim , you got a donate button somewhere that is paypal compatible ?
Big D. Slim , thanks man , this script worked wonders , you’re a life saver . Best of success to you !
Glad that it’s working! 🙂
great tool dude!!..
Thanks Pablo! 🙂
Oh, actually it wasn’t a feature request… what I meant was, I actually extract the corrective shape while using your tool, send that to ZBrush, do my sculpting, send it back to Maya, and then use abSymMesh to restore points and then apply that back to the corrective node with your tool! A bit of a roundtrip, but it works!
Alternatively, maybe ask Rich Diamant if he’s willing to integrate his diamant modeling tools with your free tool? 😀 It’s really nice for getting kind-of semi-sculpting tools in Maya…
Dear Daniel:
(This is a repost from the Vimeo message I sent you, but I figured I’d post it here as well in case anyone was interested in looking at the problem as well. 🙂 )
Hi, I’m Yi Liang, a student. I was introduced to the Sculpt InBetween tool by my professor for pose space deformation, and it’s really cool!
I’m recently trying to use it for a school project, but I’m running into a bit of an issue: When I tried creating a blendshape node using the tool, and all it would do is create a copy of the geometry, and fail to add a blendshape node on it. Funnily enough, in the output, it says “Select Something”, even though it created a copy of the geometry.
I’ve tried adding a blendshape node on top of the problematic geometry and using that to tell the editor which node to create correctives for, but when I do that, creating a new corrective results in the message:
# RuntimeError: No object(s) to duplicate #
I’ve looked at the geometry, detached it from the skinCluster and deleted history on it, but it still has the same problem.
If you have some spare time, would you be willing to have a look over the rig and see if there’s something wrong that’s causing the problem? I would really appreciate it! I’m really stumped, especially since the problematic geometry doesn’t seem to have any connections to it or out of it other than the usual skinCluster and tweak node.
sdrv.ms/1mvBDW6
Try selecting his pants and using the dslSie tool. It produces that message. I tried deleting history on it and also using the tool again, with the mesh having no connections to anything in the DAG. Also, I get the same error. It was baffling back then.
But in any case, I really like the dslSiE tool, and many thanks for making it available for free! 😀 And again, thank you so much for replying!
Thanks for that Yi Liang! Thanks for the file again, I checked and I could see the same error and I know what it is! 🙂 I will be releasing a new version soon with a complete new code under the hood witch is hopefully more stable and with less bugs. I took some buttons out of the UI and some new functions to some pre existent one. This time I will focus to release a better and more detailed documentation.
Dear Daniel:
Thank you so much for replying! If it’s not too much trouble, would you mind explaining what went wrong? Till now I still have no idea how the geometry could have caused this problem to occur, and as I’m interested in rigging and python scripting too, I’d appreciate even a quick explanation of what I did wrong if you have time. 😀
Again, thank you for taking the time to look over the model, and I look forward to the next version of your sculptInBetween tool! It really is quite amazing when you combine this and corrective shapes from ZBrush as well!
The problem it was in a bad implementation that I did to deal with the string names from the objects. Just because you have ‘_’ on your geometry’s name is enough to cause this problem but if you simply change this it will work just fine. The implementation with zbrush or modo is pretty much the most requested feature that I receive through emails! 🙂 Unfortunately I think isn’t possible, or at least not easily implemented, because the subdivision that occurs inside of those sculpt softwares doesn’t keep the original world space point position of the initial shape because there is no history deformation for subdivision. This is means that if you bring back the 0 subdivision geo from zbrush after you have sculpted in level 2, for example, it won’t match the initial state of any point causing the PSD calculation perform everywhere on on your mesh causing deformations in areas that you don’t want. …If I find a way to get a common factor ratio for the other vertices that you don’t want the PSD to be applied between your sculpt software and maya I will be able crop those points to not get included into the type of PSD calculation… maybe it’s an idea for a implementation, if I have a time I will do a quick research to find a solution for the release 3.0 since the 2.0 is coming soon. Thanks for the idea anyway! 🙂
Hey Daniel,
I have a few quesitons:
1. Is there a twist functionality?
2. If I had the rig off to someone, would they also need the plug in?
Thanks! 🙂
Hey Dan, I’m not sure if I understood your first question but the tool doesn’t create any deformer or special node in the scene it’s just a blendshape correctives administration UI with some couple utilities to make your life a bit easier during sculpting shapes also It’s not a plugin so you can totally use in any other computer without the tool.
Hi Daniel , congratulation , it is really good PSD and thx for sharingit but I have question , as you know maya sculpting tools aren’t perfect , is there any way that we use Zbrush or Mudbox to sculpting ?
Thanks Davoud. To be honest I never look into the communication between Maya and other softwares because I guess that this wouldn’t work as expected since if you subdivide those meshes inside zbrush or modo you would actually also modify the base mesh in every vertice witch would cause some undesirable psd calculation. Try do some test like, export the .obj of the character mesh that you have in the pose that you want to sculpt in Zbrush or Modo and once you’re there subdivide and start to sculpt the geo, after you’re done with the sculpt unsubdivide and bring back this geo importing to the same scene that you once exported and look this mesh in wireframe on top of the the one that you’re have skined in the same pose and see the difference, you would probably see vertices offseted everywhere and that’s the problem. This is caused because everytime you subdivide a mesh inside Modo or Zbrush there is no history modifier on the mesh like in Maya so witch forces the software(Modo or Zbrush) re-calculate to became a new low mesh from a dense mesh and this recalculation results in a different mesh. I’m not a computer scientist but this is what I noticed what these calculation methods does in those softwares in my experience. My hope is that the artisan inside maya have options and more robust to sculpt inside maya.
Hi, Daniel
Your tool is fantastic! It is very intuitive and animator friendly. Thank you so much for putting it out there.
My question relates to the one above using zbrush etc. If you just exported the pose from maya to zbrush as an obj and did not subdivide it but just sculpt the mesh as is. Import it back to maya and use that as the in between? If that is possible how would I use that method with the tool?
It is mainly because I prefer the sculpt tools in zbrush.
Thanks a lot Jason, I’m glad that I could contribute to the cg community somehow!:) About you question; I guess if you want to do that you can simply transfer the vertex position of the imported geo to the sculptGeo created by the tool and then you can apply into the target as a corrective shape or inbetween. There’s many tools that does transfer components position out there, the one that I use good old mel from Bazhukin: http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/script/shapetools
i seem to keep stubbling over that I need to key the sculpt before going out of sculpt mode, could it do an autokey before it exits sculpt mode?
I’m not sure if I understood your question Jepsen, Are you talking about to make an keyframe to turn off the target before you turn of the sculpt mode? …If you turn the sculpt mode off with some user sculpt applied to it it won’t gonna cause any problem to your rig however it will retain this sculpt in the world position inside the shape of the geo witch you can clear up simply going to sculpt mode again and pressing Reset. I hope that helps.
This is an amazing tool Daniel. Thanks for developing it and making it available. It’s by far the best PSD solution I’ve seen.
Thanks ArdaE! I just basically did an UI for some features that Autodesk never did and I implemented a simple algorithm for the psd calc witch isn’t the best and most robust as I wanted but so far I’m glad that is working. Simple invert matrix transformation.
this is a freaking great tool!
Thanks Jepsen!
thanks for your great tools man.really great!!