tb CollisionTools

Supports Maya 2017- 2022 (Python2 and 3)

Standalone version that does not require the core tbAnimTools to be installed is also available now

Easily add finger contact to your scenes without modifying your rig.

Animate as normal with no extra controls added - The collision offset is handled with the offsetParentMatrix. A legacy mode is automatically used on older versions of Maya, it requires an extra parent node above your top control to put the rotation offset on. Usually this is not a problem, just unlock the rotation on your fk parent node.

The tool will add a sphere collision object to the end of a chain of controls. When the chain is animated through the floor plane, the top of your chain will be rotated away to maintain contact with the surface.

• Save presets for common setups.
• Bake the controls to the corrected poses, or snap and retain sparse keys.
• Visualize the collision point with a toggleable debug line in the viewport.

Usage - Video coming soon!:

1. Open the UI via the tbAnimTools menu
2. Add a new group - anything in this group will share the same floor plane
3. Select the parent transform of your first fk control, and all the child objects up to your last fk control.
4. Press add coliision, and name it.
5. With part of your rig selected, press 'Create'
6. Arrange the sphere objects created to where you need them to be for nice contact.
7. Optionally save your preset from the file menu.

Installation:

1. Download the zip file;
   tb_collisionTool_for_tbAnimTools_v1_xx,from the product page
2. With Maya open, choose "Activate New Plugins" from the tbAnimTools menu.

   

3. Pick the zip file using the folder button. Press install.

   

4. Once prompted, enter your email used with your purchase and license key.
5. Restart Maya for all changes to take effect.

Usage:

1. Once installed, open the UI via the tbAnimTools menu bar

   

2. Select an object (to use as a name) and press 'Add Group' This will make a group entry in the UI, all collision added to this group will share the same floor plane object.

   

3. In the outliner, drag select from the transform above the top control you want to affect, all the way to the last control. Press 'Add collision'. A popup will appear and you can rename this entry. Press Save.

   

4. Repeat this process for any collision you want to create.

   

5. Use the file menu to save your preset.
6. With part of your rig selected, press 'Create' to apply it to your scene.
7. Presets can be applied directly to the rig from the UI, or the mel command "tbCollisionApplyPreset"
8. Once applied, pose up the tip controls to suit your collision needs. I recommend Studio Library to save the final poses for re-use in other scenes.

   

9. An asset per collision object and one per floor plane are created. Right clicking on in the viewport with any of these objects will open a custom popup menu with some useful commands.

Single user license:

One license per user, users do not have permission to distribute scenes or rigs either free or paid for containing the collision setup.

User does not have permission to modify, decompile, deconstruct or reverse engineer the collision functions.