Quick Tip: Find Menu 11:01 AM

Don't you hate it when you can't find a menu set? This happens to me all the time. I can remember the name of the menu but can't find it for nothing. Just the other day I couldn't find the option to delete the history on an object.

When working on OSX, you can easily search the menu sets of Maya with OSX's built-in menu search. However, while working on a PC I really missed that feature. At least until I found the "find menu" menu. Some silence please for the victorious trumpets and the choir's "hallelujah."

...hallelujah...

I honestly had never heard of or seen this glorious menu set. Now I pass this knowledge onto you. Just remember, "with great power come great responsibility."

quick eyes tutorial 4:26 PM

i found this little gem on the animade site. i hope they make more of these.


Animade Lernz - EYES from Animade on Vimeo.

Jason Ryan's free "ramp up" tutorials 10:15 AM

I have been keeping my eye out for animation tutorials that deal with some basics. There are a couple out there if you look. However, I found these tutorials for free on Jason Ryan's website. I recommend these for anyone just starting out.

Also, the paid webinars look like a great deal. You can pick up the first 12-part series for $99. Excellent price. Considering I was paying that per day for my (uncompleted) college education. Check out series 1 here. I haven't bought the series yet, but I am thinking about it.

While on the $99 subject, go to Keith Lango's site Animation Clinic to download 61 animation tutorials! This guy is good and this is a great deal. Take advantage of it! I will.

Never buy a rig. 1:08 PM

Animating without a rig would be like puppeteering without a puppet! Everyone knows that that is just absurd. Luckily, there are some really great free rigs out there. Seriously, no need to buy a rig. For a great array of free rigs, check out Animation Buffet.

Here is a list of some of my favorites. Starting from simplest to more complex.


Flying Fox 
This is a great rig to start out with. Practice bouncing ball and obstacle course exercises with this bugger.  You can hide the tail and ears. When you want to take it up a level, show the tail/ears to practice follow through and overlap.

Simple Bot
When you conquer the bouncing ball and tail, add some legs! This is a great rig to test walk-cycles and simple jumps and runs. Show the eyes to get some expression.

Höbö 
I haven't animated this guy yet but it would looks like a good stepping stone to a full humanoid rig. If you get a chance to animate with this rig, tell me what you think.

Joe
This little guy is just so cute. When you are ready to add arms and a head, animate Joe. He is simple and cartoon-y. This guy is just unrealistic enough that you can get away with some fun animations. You can squash and stretch his head and animate his tubular arms 50's style.

Bee-boy
This rig is a lot like Joe. Simple but great for animation exercises that don't need a complex facial rig.

There are a number of full blown rigs out there. You can find them pretty easily but just to make life even easier, check out this list of recommended rigs by The 11 Second Club.

I would just like to add that Malcolm is a fantastic rig.

Scripts make life easier, kind of like sliced bread. 6:00 AM

Some horrible tasks can me automated with a push of a button. If you find yourself doing something over and over again, you should really consider just saving a .mel script. It is a lot like magic. I do this all the time to automate controller selections on rigs. For example, I need to select all of the controllers of the rig to key. I make a script and a button called "ALL." Then, push the button, all the controllers are selected.  

Here is a quick tutorial: How to make a Selection Script.

I am assuming you have already referenced your rig and are able to select it's controls. So, step one is to open the Script Editor. There is a handy button on the bottom right hand of the screen.

Now that the Script Editor is open. Go ahead and Edit>Clear History.

Leave your script editor window open. Now start selecting your rig's controllers. Select the first, hold SHIFT and select the second, third, etc. You will see that Maya is recording all of your actions.

Once you are done group-selecting the controllers, highlight all of the script you have generated and  File>Save Script to Shelf.

A name window will pop up asking for you to create a name. You can put whatever you want in this window. For this script, put ALL. Press OK. A second window will pop up, select MEL not Python. The script will then be put on whatever shelf you have open. Make sure to switch to the specific shelf you want before saving the script. Press and script to see what happens!

TIP: To delete a script, use the middle mouse button. Press and hold the script, drag it to the little trash can to the far right of the shelf.

This is a simple tutorial but I hope you can see how useful this can be. It'll save you loads of time.