Technical Artist Blog » Cybergrub via OmniZed

TurnEdge – MEL script for Maya

June 20, 2011

Similar to 3ds Max’s Turn Edge, except this tool is based on a quad/poly face selection. Select a face, then Turn Edge. The TriangleEdge of the selected Quad/Polygon is turned.

TogglePolygonFaceTriangles command is included in the UI for the user to easily view the angles of each Triangle Edge before editing.

It’s nothing fancy or complex, although it is ideal for quickly tweaking undesirable polygonal bending of correctly skinned/wieghted low-poly skeletal meshes. (i.e. incorrect poly bending, clipping or intersections)

Especially when characters have various garments, add-ons or other accessories where character culling (for game assets) can’t be used and precise weighting is needed.

Non-invasive modification of skeletal mesh. Skin Weights are preserved. And the procedure’s history is removed upon completion.

Unfortunately we cannot delete the newly created edge without maya reverting the original direction of that edge…sorry

DOWNLOAD

ozTurnEdge.mel

Installation:
* Copy the ozTurnEdge.mel file to your Documents and Settings\[user name]\My Documents\maya\[version]\scripts\ folder.
* Restart / Run Maya or enter rehash; in the command line if Maya is already running.
* ozTurnEdge; will source the script and open the tool’s UI.

// Posted in MEL Scripts | No Comments » |

ozCollisionCreator v2.1

October 21, 2010

.
After receiving feedback showing an interest in this script, I decided it was about time for me to clean it up and get it out here for public release.

The functions are still the same, with a slight change to the interface, and 1 main addition.

Basic functions / actions of this script:

Creates collision box
Renames the collision box (to 1 of the 4 collision types)
Assigns a collision shader
Assigns Game Engine properties if applicable
(NOTE: this has been commented out in the script, and depends on what game engine you are using.)

In the top section,
Option 1 “Create Collision”:

creates 1 collision based on ALL objects selected in the scene.

Option 2 “Create Multi-Collision”:

creates a collision box for EVERY object selected in the scene. (i.e. 5 objects selected = 5 collision boxes) To make management of assets easier, each collision box is parented / linked to their respective object.

The 2nd section “Selected Object is Collision”:
This section is used if you already have a collision object created and you want to assign collision properties to the selected mesh.

3rd section “Add Modifier to Collision”:
This adds 1 of 2 modifiers, if further editing and modeling of the collision box is needed or desired for a more accurate fit to the game asset.

4th section “Toggle Collision Display”:
Toggles the collision boxes within the max scene. I found this helpful, because after I have a collision box created, I don’t care to see it. Just boxmode, freeze it and forget about it.

And finally, the new stuff;
5th section “Collision Shader Options”:
Here the user has the option to choose their DirectX shader to use (or not use) for creating the collisions. By default, the OZ collision shader is used, and comes packaged in the script. If your pipeline uses another shader for collisions (assuming it does), no problem. Select the last radio button and “Browse for new (.fx) shader”. The script will remember the shader you browsed for and that option will be used next time the script is run. So that means you don’t have to keep the script window open and you won’t have to browse for it every time you reopen max.

DOWNLOAD

ozCollisionCreator.mzp (version 2.1)

Installation:
Installation is easy; after downloading the ozCollisionCreator.mzp from link provided below, (with 3DsMax running) just drag and drop the .MZP file onto your viewport.

// Posted in Maxscript | 2 Comments » |

End of Nations (MMORTS)

May 31, 2010

“End of Nations” (MMORTS = Massively Multiplayer Online Real-Time Strategy) is another title I was involved in developing. I helped get the art pipeline setup for the crew over at Petroglyph (one of the many tools I created is mentioned in the previous post).

There aren’t many characters (as you’ll notice it’s mostly vehicle based), but we did include soldiers on the vehicles and their perimeters. And yes, you’ll get to see their little flailing bodies ejected from their units when you blow them up. Getting that set up was a big win (with the help of John Fazzie programmer and Sean animator), because we felt it gave the players’ units a little more depth and visual appeal; which added to the whole “living world” experience. Since there was less work involved in creating a typical character pipeline, it allowed me to spend more time assisting artists with and streamlining the overall production of art assets.

One area in particular that I enjoyed working on was gibs and debris. Working with explosives is always fun, right? I worked closely with our FX team to getting the timing and type of explosions just right. We were able to workout some interesting and fairly complex setups for this, such as “second generation” or “chained” explosions.

Rigging and skinning were fairly straight forward since the units were mostly rigid; occasionally smooth binding was used for some of the geometry effects I created and other accessories like cloth tarps,etc.

I was able to automate the skeletal creation, control rig, and other necessary controls for various dependencies of animation, whether driven by the engine or animated prior to export. The technical artists were also responsible for setting up and tweaking the lights on all the units.

The title changed names many times during various stages of development, but they finally settled on “End of Nations”, which I happen to like. It reminds me of Rage Against the Machine’s remake of Renegades of Funk, hence my choice for title submission was “Order of Nations: Renegades”

“…destroy all nations…”

I also really digg the back story, written for us by John Dombrow before leaving to work at Bioware Canada. The trailer below gives you brief idea of what the synopsis is about…

You can check out this and other media released for End of Nations at GameTrailers.com or the official website for End of Nations at EndOfNations.com

// Posted in Game Titles | 1 Comment » |

Shortening the bridge

April 19, 2010

One of the challenges we were facing during production of MMORTS (aka “End of Nations“, official press coverage & media released) was eliminating the amount of time and complexity it was taking just to get an art asset implemented and placeable in the game. It’s crucial for an artist to be able to see what their work looks like after its translated from their content creation package to the game engine. (Each calculate the appearance of assets differently, due to a number of variables; lighting, normals, shaders, etc.) The art team, in addition to the outsourced art coming in, were pumping out assets faster than the pipeline’s current state would allow us to get them into the game. We only had 2 technical artists at the time (still somewhat of new role to the company) and our responsibilities were heavy and time consuming in itself. Some of the typical tech art duties included;

Mesh Segmenting (for shaders, colorization, bone count, etc)
Rigging
Skinning
Lighting, Day/Night States and fx Setup
Modeling Damaged States
Modeling and Rigging Debris (gibs) pieces and setup
and often animation

After these tasks were met and polished, we could final export and make the necessary code entries to have them function properly and playable in game. This included everything from props, structures, units, and special assets for Design that were mission-specific. Some of these assets needed little or no tech art passes on them, they simply needed the engine to recognize them for what they were. After some help from our friends in Design (especially Rich, in particular), I began automating the component entries and game properties of an asset for the various art types. This tool allowed the entire process to run parallel with an export from within the artists’ content creation package, and resulted in every artists’ ability to easily and quickly view/test their work in game.

Below I have included images docs and an explanation of the compiler / injector…

: Step1: Export

: Your asset’s looking good in the viewer. Now let’s see it in game.

: Step2: Open Compiler UI

: Step3: Set & Inject

// Posted in Maxscript, OZ Tools, Pipeline | 2 Comments » |

Growing pains

April 12, 2010

With more content being added to the showcase, I needed to make a few improvements to the Content Viewer for all assets and navigation to function correctly.

Added fullscreen option (all thumbnail menus are hidden whem enable)
Added back and forward commands to the player controls. (bottom menu)
Video centers and scales regardless of FLV ratio.
Fixed some menu scrolling errors that hindered additional content from being viewed.
Description panels fit more text characters.

I’d also like to add an option to “play all”, which will play each loop twice then move on to the next. And maybe some in-game screenshots of the respective character.

// Posted in Characters, Flash, Rigging | No Comments » |

Toggle DirectX (MaxScript)

March 26, 2010

OZ DirectX Toggle macroscript for 3Ds Max released…

oz_DXStgl.mcr

Discription:
Creates a standard software shader using the base texture from the assigned DirectX shader and sets Max’s viewport to display the assigned DirectX shader as software render, and toggles between the two shader display styles.

For a detailed explanation of what goes on behind the scenes of this script, view the following tutorial post HowTo Setup a DirectX Shader to display as a Standard 3DsMax Shader in Max’s Viewport.

This script automates that process and toggles between each viewport rendering style of the selected object.

// Posted in Maxscript | 1 Comment » |

Collision Creator

March 22, 2010

UPDATE AVAILABLE: Download the latest version here » OZ Collision Creator v2.1

	OZ COLLISION CREATOR
quick tip –>	◊ CONTROL clicking the Collision Creator icon within the OZ Toolbox will toggle boxmode display of all collision boxes in your scene. ◊ ALT clicking will toggle frozen mode of all collision boxes in your scene.
	In the example, there are 2 separate trash dumpsters. Select Collision Type from the radio buttons at the top of the UI. • Standard = “Collision” • Passable = “Collision_Passable” • Impassable = “Collision_Impassable” • Crusher = “Crusher” From there you have 2 options;
	Option 1: “CREATE COLLISION” This option creates 1 collision based on ALL objects selected in the scene.
	Option 2: “CREATE MULTI-COLLISION” This option creates a collision box for EVERY object selected in the scene. (i.e. 5 selections = 5 collision boxes) To make management of assets easier, each collision box is parented / linked to their respective object.
2nd half of UI Selected Object is Collision:	Under the “Set Collision Type as:” section, use 1 of the 4 buttons to apply all the neccesary settings to a pre-created collision box, including Alamo and shader settings.

*Art Assets created by Lynne Gura.

// Posted in 3dsMax, Maxscript | 2 Comments » |

bye bye blogger…

March 13, 2010

hello WordPress…

I’m making the switch from Blogger to WordPress, as many are doing.
Of course this takes a little setup time :-\
So, thanks for bearing with me.

If you run into any errors or strange formatting you can also view the old Cybergrub page on blogger at the link provided.
← link to Cybergrub with blogger

// Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments » |

OZ Tools (MS) Overview

March 10, 2010

I wanted to first introduce an overview of the OZ Toolbox.
The entire toolbox is not currently available for public download, although i have begun to outline and describe many of the functions contained therein.

As I work on converting and optimizing the code for public release of each tool and function, I will be updating the links when new documentations are posted and tools are available for use.

So please check back, or hit me up if there are any of interest to you.
Also, if you have any requests or suggestions, i would love to hear them.

Thanks and Enjoy…
~ΦZ

INSTALLATION: [...]

Click and Save the .mzp to your local machine. OZ Toolbox self-installer for 3DsMax
not currently formatted for public download.

To Install:

With 3DsMax running, just drag and drop the attached .mzp onto your viewport and follow the prompt.

Drag and Drop into Max’s Viewport.

SETUP:

After installation is complete. The user will be prompt to set their working project’s directory

before continuing.

This is important because many of the tools and dependencies re/ly on the location specified here.

(i.e. “D:\projects\Mytheon\Mytheon”)

QUICK TIP: » If you’re not sure about a tool in the OZ toolbox, just RIGHT CLICK the button in question, and receive a brief discription of that tool.

I. Overview

A. Tools Section
B. Selections Section
C. Project Specific Section
D. Export Functions
E. Options

II. Tools Section

A. Shader Worx [...]

1. Toggle DirectX
2. DX19 (places directX shader in slot 19 of the materialEditor)
3. rPath (re-paths txtr map to the correct location on the users local machine)
4. ShaderCreator beta (create directX shader from Max’s Standard Shaders.)
5. cycleMap (cycle through checkered textures)
6. empty
7. MrAO (render Ambient Occlusion to clipboard using mentalRay renderer)
8. LtAO (bake Ambient Occlusion using LightTracer)
9. UVrnd (render UVs to clipboard)

B. Export Assistant [...]

1. Collision Creator
2. Wall Splines (for Alamo Wall/Cliff Tool)
3. Detach By Material ID
4. Debris Setup (auto-align and placement for export)
5. SkinShader Check (check & change all skinned geo to have skin shader)

C. ozPuppeteer: Rigging & Skinning Tools [...]

1. Automated Rigging Setup

a. Muzzle FX Control (img1, img2)

2. HierarchyHierophant

a. KeyFraming & Animation Tools

i. (Control Click) for MasterKeyZ
ii.(ALT Click) for XYZed KeyZ

3. ozSlave beta

D. Asset Management [...]

1. Rename objects

a. Based off of Alec Fredericks’ maxscript, ‘Object Renamer‘

2. +P4 (add & check out files from P4)

a. (Control Click) to add/check out current maxfile

3. List Dependencies
4. Reset Xform (actually resets scale

E. Lighting & Rendering

III. Select/Deselect Section

A. Select by Skin, Animated Objects
B. Select by Display Property
C. Select by Alamo: [...]

• (ALT Click) Subtracts from current selection
• (CONTROL Click) Adds to current selection
• (SHIFT Click) Toggles “AsLinks” display

Select Alamo Bone
2.

Select Alamo Geometry
3.

Select Alamo Collision
4. Select ALT States

a. ALT0: 100-67% health
b. ALT1: 66-34% health
c. ALT2: 33-1 % health
d. ALT3 0% / Death

Select Alamo Proxy Objects
6.

Select Alamo Debris Nodes
7.

Select Alamo Lights
8.

Select Alamo Dazzles

IV. Project Specific Section

A. Mytheon
B. MMORTS

1. Scale Reference Library
2. Infantry Animation Pose Library

V. Export Functions

A. Standard Export
B. Animation Export (WIP)
C. ExportByLayers
D. COMPILE TO GAME

1. Test Art in-game
2. No XML or chisel required

VI. Options

A. AutoBak (Where’s your local autoback folder for Max?)

X. Setup (Under the Hood)

// Posted in Maxscript, OZ Tools | No Comments » |

Mytheon Character Classes Trailer

October 8, 2009

“Jason spearheaded the initial vision of sharing animation rigs on Mytheon. This idea resulted in the creation of 400 characters from 16 original rigged characters. Had this idea not come to fruition we would not have the variety of characters we had in the game or nearly the amount of variety of characters in the game.”

- Management Team, Petroglyph Games

For more info and details on the different character classes that we’ve been hammering out, check out this article.

“Jason contributed greatly to our tools for animation and established our animation rigging conventions. Jason created rigging conventions that streamlined the production processes of animation for both the artists and the programming.”

- Management Team, Petroglyph Games

TurnEdge – MEL script for Maya

June 20, 2011

DOWNLOAD

// Posted in MEL Scripts | No Comments » |

ozCollisionCreator v2.1

October 21, 2010

DOWNLOAD

// Posted in Maxscript | 2 Comments » |

End of Nations (MMORTS)

May 31, 2010

// Posted in Game Titles | 1 Comment » |

Shortening the bridge

April 19, 2010

// Posted in Maxscript, OZ Tools, Pipeline | 2 Comments » |

Growing pains

April 12, 2010

// Posted in Characters, Flash, Rigging | No Comments » |

Toggle DirectX (MaxScript)

March 26, 2010

// Posted in Maxscript | 1 Comment » |

Collision Creator

March 22, 2010

// Posted in 3dsMax, Maxscript | 2 Comments » |

bye bye blogger…

March 13, 2010

// Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments » |

OZ Tools (MS) Overview

March 10, 2010

// Posted in Maxscript, OZ Tools | No Comments » |

Mytheon Character Classes Trailer

October 8, 2009

// Posted in Characters, Game Titles, Showcase | 2 Comments » |

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