Saturday, July 2, 2011

Quick guide to abxPicker

I wrote this article for my instructor Linda Bel. In this article I just want show you how to use abxPicker which is a really useful controller interface for animators. You can create a control panel, then you can select your controllers in a very visual way.


You can find it on Creative Crash. Just sign up an account(it's free) and search abxPicker then you will see it.

Well, the free version only works before Maya2011. If you want to use it with 2011, you have to pay for it~~ (NO~~~~). But If you use Maya 8.5~2010~ (YEAH~~~~)

(1) INSTALL:
OK, After you download the zip file from Highend3d you will get 3 files :
abxPicker.bmp
abxPicker.mel
abxPickerTestScene.ma <- don't need this, but if you wanna test it, open it~

Put abxPicker.bmp in X: (Normally in C drive) \Documents and Settings\XXX(Your computer name)\My Documents\maya\XXX(Your Maya version)\prefs\icons

Put abxPicker.mel in X: (Normally in C drive):\Documents and Settings\ XXX(Your computer name)\My Documents\maya\ XXX(Your Maya version)\scripts

Now we can make a button on the shelf. Open Maya, Type abxPicker (remember to capitalize the "P") in the Mel command line.
Highlight the text (which is abxPicker) with your mouse and then middle mouse drag it up to your shelf. Then go to shelf editor and change the icon to abxPicker.bmp

(2)Set Up the Interface
  (A) Create New File
Now it’s time to learn how to use it, once you click on the button on the shelf. The mainwindow will pop up, for more detail, you can click on the question mark on the top right corner.


Now press the icon on the top left to create a new file.

You will see some options. But normally I keep the Name EMPTY, because if you want to use it when your character is a referenced file, leave it empty can let the script read the data (the control interface you created).

If you keep the Name empty, it will show as *Prefix*. That will allow abxPicker to grab whatever the name your character is while it’s a reference file.

See the difference? Left side is my original file, Right is when I use my character as reference


So what I do is I only name the SubSet. I set up different subsets such as “Main”, “Face”, and “Fingers” to make my interface look clean. For the options below, I choose not to touch it, so just keep the Image and Color in default.




After you create the Subset, you can see it in Outliner. Just NOT to modify it. I tend to keep away from any unexpected problems. If you delete the abx data, your subset will also be deleted.
  (B)  Create Control Panel
First, select the controller. Then drag a color box you like to the grey area by PRESSING the Middle Mouse Button (MMB), a box will create after you release the mouse button.


Here's more advanced adjustment:
To MOVE the box: press Middle Mouse Button (MMB) on the box, and drag it to where you want to place, then you RELEASE the button to place it
***you will not see the change before you release the button***

To RESIZE the box: press CTRL + MMB on the box, drag it, and release the button to resize it.  ***you will not see the change before you release the button***

Click on “More...” to get more Colors and Labels.
To NAME the box: press MMB on the Label you want, then drag it to the box, the name will show on the box after you release the MMB. To use Custom Name, just type in any name you want and press enter, then you will see the Custom laber changed.

To Assign New Color to the box: Same, press MMB on the color you want, then drag it to the box, the color will change after you release the MMB.

And here is the thing. In my case, I have problem assigning the Command. Command works like if you assign Rotate to a box, every time you click on that box, Maya will automatically set your tool to Rotate Tool. But it just doesn’t work right on my computer, so I choose not to use it. However I can always switch it by myself.

 After the control panel is done. PLEASE SAVE THE FILE!!!!!!

Then you can enjoy your custom control panel~ Thanks for your patient.


By the way. If you have more than one characters with custom panel, you can switch it  by pressing this area with left mouse button, a selec menu will show up.

7 comments:

  1. Thanx a lot for this tutorial, Yen-Shih! Really helpful!

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  2. Thanks so much for this helpful tutorial. I'm totally ok, but I can't see the saved picker set when I reload the scene with referenced character.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Could you explain more? Sorry I don't really get it.

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  3. please video tutorial

    please

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  4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-iJ33zL81M

    ReplyDelete