mgear-dev / flex

Flex is the mGear models (geometry) update tool inside rigs.

FLEX

Flex is the mGear models (geometry) update tool inside rigs.

Getting started

Here you will find descriptions on how to use this tool.

Usage example

Examples will be added soon.

Coding style

Python PEP8 convention.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE.md file for details.

Authors

The mGear-dev team

Release history

Here is the release history

To-do list

• write usage example

flex's Issues

Flex: Add Control Z capabilities when updating fails

If Flex fails updating it is important to be able to go back to the initial state after update. This is tricky because Maya doesn't correctly deals with shapes updates.

Flex: When updating deformed geometries we need to update the deformer set as well

If new vertices exists on the update object, the target deformed objects deform set needs to get updated as well.

Locked attributes causes errors while updating

Describe the bug
I an attribute is locked the update attribute wasn't applying the updated values correctly

Support for nurbs nodes type

Flex update should work on mesh and nurbs curves and nurbs surfaces

Flex: User Attributes transfer

Handle transferring user defined attributes
In order to maintain correct synchronization between the model and the rig the existing attributes on the source shapes need to get transferred.

Extra information
The first version wont cover all type of Maya attributes

This is a test

This is a simple test

Flex: Create new distribution structure

UI instances not getting deleted correctly

When closing Flex UI the widgets are still kept in memory

Flex: Handle color diplay attributes

Add display color attributes option
Flex should handle display colors attributes transfer.

Extra information
This is the list of attributes been covered on the display colors attribute feature

["displayColors",
"displayColorChannel",
"materialBlend"]

Flex: Handle render attributes

Update render attributes on the shapes
To keep a correct sync on the source and target we need to be able to transfer render attributes

Extra information
This needs to become a feature that users can use or not (API level)

Flex: Performances API

API performances
Check how Maya cmds vs Maya OpenMaya affects performances. As this tool is not doing anything fancy with geometries it is quite possible that keeping maya.cmds module will still provide enough good performances of code execution but we need to test if maya.OpenMaya will give better results.

Extra information
Simplest cases are irrelevant here. Flex needs to be able to update rigs with more than 1.000 geometries pieces with lots of deformers and geometry changes almost instantaneously.

Provide default update settings inside the Flex object

Flex.update_rig method should have a default setting on how rigs will get updated. For now it is dependent on the UI features. A property needs to be created for this inside the Flex class

Flex: Writte tests for the first release

Test driven development
In order to make this tool as solid as possible for future release and artists feedback test will be require in order to refactor the code in the easiest possible way.

Extra information
The tests will be created with PyTest

Flex: Reset ori shape points

Reset orig shape points position
We assume that the points position on the source shape has reset vertex positions

Extra information
This might need to become an option that can be used or not

Flex: Flex release for mGear 3.X.X

Official Flex release
The first version that will get published with mGear.

Flex: Handle skinned meshes with topology and volume changes

Feature description
Skinned meshes need to be updated correctly

Extra information
This case is the most complex case to handle in terms of quality. So for this we might need to give users a UV base transfer or a Wrap base sort of transfer but this is not hard

Flex: Handle plugin defined attributes

Handle plugin defined attributes
Flex will query plugin defined attributes and try to update those as well.

Flex: Handle skinned meshes with topology changes and no volume changes

Feature description
Skinned meshes need to be updated correctly

Extra information
This case is pretty simple as we can be sure of copying the skinning into the newer topology re-injected into the rig

Flex: Handle wrong options keys

flex.update_rig.update_rig method should make sure that the options passes to it have valid keys

Flex: Check topology changes

Feature description
Flex need to check the topology changes between corresponding shapes. This will mostly be relevant when meshes are deformed

Extra information
The first version wont handle topology changes on deformed meshes. It will allow to update it but your deformation chain will probably break

Flex: Handle live blendshape targets

Live blendshape targets should be updated as well

When updating the non matching topology meshes we need to be able to update live targets as well but this can be tricky because we can't predict what is inside those live targets.

Maybe we deal with just on target level because there might be cases in which a live target blendshape contains a blendshape node deformer and has as well another cascading live target...

Handle transformed geometries

Transformed geometries

Handle the model update on geometries that are not deformed

Flex: Scan meshes

Scan meshes

• We provide two Maya groups (transform nodes) to the system.
  • First is the group containing the rig geometries
  • Second is the group containing the new geometries

Extra relevant information
Scan meshes will check and compare the content of this two groups to match shape names

Flex: UI prototype

UI prorotype for Beta releas
Need to present some prototypes to the devs team for Flex

Extra information
The prototype might be done as a simple drawing or maybe a ruff qt ui

Flex: Handle skinned meshes without topology or volumes changes

Feature description
Skinned meshes need to be updated correctly

Extra information
Normally this is a simple case as the outMesh connection to the ori shape of the deformed object works fine when topology is the same.

Flex: Handle diplay attributes

Add display attributes option
Flex should handle display attributes transfer.

Extra information
This is the list of attributes been covered on the display attribute feature

["visibility",
"template",
"lodVisibility",
"displayHWEnvironment",
"ignoreHwShader",
"hideOnPlayback"]

The intermediateObject attribute is not been transferred as we want the shape to keep it's state.

Flex: Handle custom attributes

Option to update certain attributes

Maybe the user wants to update certain Maya attributes on the shape that are not been taken into account with Flex. Maybe they can add a json file or simply fill in an option on the UI to add attirbutes that will be added to the update

Flex: Fill Readme file

Fill Readme file with more content
Add extra information about the tool and its API

Flex: Handle multiple skin staged nodes/layers

If a model contains several skin cluster nodes in a chain Flex wont update correctly those when going into mismatched topologies

Flex: Issue with copying weights on cluster deformers

copy_cluster_weights function causes error when handling clusters