Utility Node Tutorial

greatbear
Member
Posted 1 year ago
#

Hi!

I've been working through the utility node tutorial (http://www.rigging101.com/free/utilitynodes/index.htm), and hit a bit of a snag on the second exercise...(pCube.translateX = (pBall.translateY * 1.5) + (pBall.translateZ / 2)

The bit where it says "Connect the outputX of the nodeMultiply to the input1D[n]/[0]" has me at a loss - when I try to do this, there is no "input1D[n]/[0]", only "input1D[0]".

I've had a look around on other forums, and tried copying and pasting the MEL script from the first operation, changing the [0] to [1]; which I thought had worked, but when I come to move pball, the cube moves also but not the way the equation states.

I'm running Maya 2009, on a pc. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know.

Cheers!!

GB
Javier "Goosh" Solsona (admin)
Key Master
Posted 1 year ago
#

Mmn... can't recall too much since it was a looooooong time ago that I wrote that.

Could be something different from an older version of Maya? though it does seem strange

I would say it's more like input1D[0]
I think that should do it

Javier
greatbear
Member
Posted 1 year ago
#

Thanks Javier!

I have tried using input1D[0], but when I try and connect the second Multiply Divide node to the +/-Average node it just replaces the first connection, so you can't have two connections - strange because you need at least 2 values to add subtract or average them.

I wonder if there's anyone attempting this tutorial on Maya 2009, whose encountered this problem - could it be a bug??

Cheers

GB
kwilli30
Member
Posted 1 year ago
#

The nodes work, the bug is in the display of the attributes. They don't show up in the connection editor or the attribute editor until they are connected. Stupid, I know, but easily solved.

the MEL should be something like:

connectAttr -f multiplyDivide1.outputX plusMinusAverage1.input1D[0];
connectAttr -f multiplyDivide2.outputX plusMinusAverage1.input1D[1];

Taking care that those are the appropriate names of all the objects and attributes. For simplicities sake, I'm not bother with variables.

You'll know it worked because the input1D[0] and input1D[1] attributes will show up in the attribute editor, and the connection will be visible as a blue line in the hypergraph.

p.s. - you can add as many values to the plusMinusAverage node as you want, just plug them into different slots.

connectAttr -f multiplyDivide1.outputX plusMinusAverage1.input1D[0];
connectAttr -f multiplyDivide2.outputX plusMinusAverage1.input1D[1];
connectAttr -f multiplyDivide1.outputY plusMinusAverage1.input1D[2];
connectAttr -f multiplyDivide2.outputY plusMinusAverage1.input1D[3];

will add, subtract, or average all four values together.
Javier "Goosh" Solsona (admin)
Key Master
Posted 1 year ago
#

Yeah.. I think I mainly did this with MEL

There is a way to do the connections directly, I've done it before. But MEL is so much easier that I always ended up doing that
greatbear
Member
Posted 1 year ago
#

Nice one, cheers guys - i'll give that a whirl!
sim.On
Member
Posted 1 year ago
#

hey greatbear,

i usually connect all the "plusMinusAverage"-nodes in MEL . most of the rest is usually easy to connect in the connectionEditor .

-------------
input1D is for adding "single values"

e.g.

when you use input3D you can connect a complete "translation" or "rotation" into it
and you can add as many inputs into this chain - so it is not limited to 2 inputs ( thats the case , when you are using "multiplyDivide" . if you want to multiply (e.g.) 3 inputs , than you would have to create 2 multiplyDivide Nodes . first multiply the first 2 inputs , and in the second step multiply the output of the first multiplication , with the third input value - in order to get a multiplication for 3 inputs.

the +/-average can handle infinite inputs - so you would just need one +/-average to add 3 inputs .

e.g.

createNode plusMinusAverage -n "myPlus";

// create 4 cubes
polyCube -n "inCube1";polyCube -n "inCube2";polyCube -n "inCube3";polyCube -n "inCube4";

// connect the translation into the +/-average
connectAttr -f "inCube1.t" "myPlus.input3D[0]";
connectAttr -f "inCube2.t" "myPlus.input3D[1]";
connectAttr -f "inCube3.t" "myPlus.input3D[2]";
connectAttr -f "inCube4.t" "myPlus.input3D[3]";

//create an output cube , which will have as translation the addition of all 4 input-cubes
polyCube -n "outCube";
connectAttr -f "myPlus.output3D" "outCube.t" ;

---------------
PS:
if you only want to add 2 single values , you can also use "createNode addDoubleLinear;" , or multiply "createNode multDoubleLinear;" , but unfortunately there is no "divDoubleLinear" or "subtractDobleLinear" .
akshita
Member
Posted 10 months ago
#

i would be very thankfull if someone plz help me with tutorials on multiply divide node and simple ways to use it...since m new to it,finding it difficult to understand
Javier "Goosh" Solsona (admin)
Key Master
Posted 10 months ago
#

Check out the utility notes tutorial on rigging101.com

http://www.rigging101.com/free/utilitynodes/index.htm

Hope that helps

Javier
VerteX
Member
Posted 6 months ago
#

so what if i want to do (pBall.translateY = pBall.translateY * 2)
How can i solve that in hypershade ? :) without take cycle error.

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