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Set Driven Key issue

Hi, I would like to drive a blend shape using one of the joints in mGear however when I load it as the driver it will not give me options like rotZ to select. Any other object I select in my scene offers this. Can someone please offer a solution, I need to drive a elbow bend blend shape to correct unrealistic weights… Thank you

Kris

Are you talking about the Rigbits SDK Manager tool? Or just regular driven keys in Maya?

Can you share a screenshot? (I just unlocked your ability to post images in the forum.)

Hi Chris, thanks for reaching out.

Yes, I am using Maya set driven keys. This is the only method I am familar with. When driving any other blend shapes I am able to pick the transform of an object to do so. However the transform values of the mgear joints my mesh is skinned to are not present when loading the joint as a driver. I have a temp work around today so the project doesnt stall where I create a expresion that maps then joints rotation to a seperate object then I set the driver to that new object that recieves the transform info. I did try to find another object in the rig that give transform values however this joint you bind a skin to appeared to be the only one that would give consistant local values that didnt change regardless of the orintation of the parent bones… Hope thank makes sense.

Thank you

Maybe there is a better way to do this. Im a softimage user being forced to use Maya and had though there might be some bone with consistant local rot values that would mean I can drive corrective blend shapes. Im going to watch some of the tutorials and see if there is something better as a solution as the elbow worked fine, but when I got to the arm raised and shoulder the locZ changes if you re oriantate in Y…

Make your driving joint keyable. Then it should show up in the editor. That tool has always been pretty clunky. You can also set them using Python (or MEL) if you need to include it in a post script when you build your rig.

Even though a lot of people say SDK, they are “driven keys”. You set a “driven key”. :slight_smile:

RIP Softimage. :frowning:

Sometimes if the skeleton bone isn’t stable with one local rotation, I’ll sometimes constrain another bone to that skeleton, using a different, cleaner local space. And then use that as a driver instead. Or sometimes you have to make sure your driver bone has the correct rotationOrder, so the driving channel is clean.

Good advise. Thank you Chris.