shizuo-kaji/ProbeDeformerMaya

Probe Deformer Plugins for Maya

ProbeDeformer plugins for Maya /**

• @brief Probe Deformer plugin for Maya
• @section LICENSE The MIT License
• @section requirements: Eigen 3: http://eigen.tuxfamily.org/
• @section Autodesk Maya: http://www.autodesk.com/products/autodesk-maya/overview
• @section (included) AffineLib: https://github.com/shizuo-kaji/AffineLib
• @version 0.20
• @date 19/Sep/2016
• @author Shizuo KAJI */

Deformers

There are two versions of deformers:

1. probeDeformer is a simple vertex based deformer which ignores mesh structure. It is applicable to any mesh and particles.
2. probeDeformerARAP is a mesh based deformer which try to preserve geometry (ARAP). It is applicable only to "clean" meshes; it is recommended first "cleanup" the target mesh by "Cleanup" => "Remove Zero edges, faces" in Maya's mesh menu.

Algorithm

For the detail of the algorithm, refer to the papers

• "Probe-Type Deformers" by S. Kaji and G. Liu in Mathematical Progress in Expressive Image Synthesis II, Volume 18 of the series Mathematics for Industry pp 63-77, http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-4-431-55483-7_6?no-access=true
• "A concise parametrisation of affine transformation" by S. Kaji and H. Ochiai, to appear in SIAM J. on Imaging Sciences, http://arxiv.org/abs/1507.05290

How to compile:

• Get devkit at https://www.autodesk.com/developmaya
• For Mac users, look at the included Xcode project file ( or Makefile )
• For Windows users, look at the included Visual Studio project file. DO NOT turn on AVX or you'll get an exception.
• on some systems, specifying the compiler option -DEIGEN_DONT_VECTORIZE may be necessary to avoid compilation errors (thank giordi91 for this information)

How to use:

1. Place the plugin files in "MAYA_PLUG_IN_PATH"
2. Place the UI python script files in "MAYA_SCRIPT_PATH"
3. Open Script editor in Maya and type in the following Python command:

import ui_probeDeformer as ui
ui.UI_ProbeDeformer()

• To visualise vertex color, go to "Display" => "Polygon" => "Custom Polygon Display" and tick "color" and select "emission."
• Rendering locators uses OpenGL and the new Viewport disables it by default. Set MAYA_ENABLE_LEGACY_VIEWPORT in Maya.env and go to "Preferences" => "Display" => "Viewport 2.0" and choose "OpenGL - Legacy"

LIMITATION:

The ARAP version works only on "clean" meshes. First apply "Cleanup" from "Mesh" menu to remove zero area faces and zero length edges.