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Animator Friendly Rigging

Does this work for all 3d animation software? Just Maya?

It's built around Maya, but many of the concepts will transfer to other animation packages.

Dear sir, from AFR_Part_IIA, I typed this scripts // BacK Scaling Expression // // Determine the scale of the back // orig back length is 5.005 $scale = back_curveInfo.arcLength / 5.005; back_1_joint.scaleX = $scale; back_2_joint.scaleX = $scale; back_3_joint.scaleX = $scale; back_4_joint.scaleX = $scale; back_5_joint.scaleX = $scale; back_6_joint.scaleX = $scale; but I got error // Determine the scale of the back // orig back length is 5.005 $scale = back_curveInfo.arcLength / 5.005; back_1_joint.scaleX = $scale; back_2_joint.scaleX = $scale; back_3_joint.scaleX = $scale; back_4_joint.scaleX = $scale; back_5_joint.scaleX = $scale; back_6_joint.scaleX = $scale; // Error: $scale = back_curveInfo.arcLength / 5.005; // // Error: Invalid use of Maya object \"back_curveInfo.arcLength\". // // Error: back_1_joint.scaleX = $scale; // // Error: \"$scale\" is an undeclared variable. // // Error: back_2_joint.scaleX = $scale; // // Error: \"$scale\" is an undeclared variable. // // Error: back_3_joint.scaleX = $scale; // // Error: \"$scale\" is an undeclared variable. // // Error: back_4_joint.scaleX = $scale; // // Error: \"$scale\" is an undeclared variable. // // Error: back_5_joint.scaleX = $scale; // // Error: \"$scale\" is an undeclared variable. // // Error: back_6_joint.scaleX = $scale; // // Error: \"$scale\" is an undeclared variable. // more than twice I am trying but I got error, I do not know what I am doing wrong. Yours sincerely, Gemologist

The first error you are getting gives the clue.. it says Invalid use of Maya Object \"back_curveInfo.arcLength". Check and make sure that you have a curveInfo node called back_curveInfo. If not, then figure out what the name of the curveInfo node is and enter it there. The other thing to confirm is that you are entering this expression in the EXPRESSION editor and not the SCRIPT editor.

How large is the download for the AFR bundle on fastspring?

In total it comes to about 4.4 gigs. Yeah. That's a lot of info. :)

I just purchased the series and my animator friendly rigging shelf isn't coming up. What's going on?

There was a problem a while ago where the shelf_animatorFriendlyRigging.mel script had the incorrect procedure name at the top of the file. I've been weeding that one out, but for some reason it seems to be sticking around a bit.
The solution is to find the shelf_animatorFriendlyRigging.mel script and open it up with your favorite text editor (vi, emacs, etc).
Change the first line from:
global proc shelf_AnimationFriendlyRigging2 () {
to:
global proc shelf_AnimationFriendlyRigging () {

How long are the downloads available after I've purchased them?

The length of time depends on the size of the file. Since these are rather large files, the standard seems to be around 15 attempts or 14 days.

One of the videos I purchased is freezing or not playing back correctly, how can I get it working the right way?

Sometimes files downloaded from the internet can get corrupted. Simply email me a copy of your receipt and the exact problem you're having and I'll get a new copy of the movie out to you right away!

How much does the material cost?

Each section of the material costs $14.99. If you wish to save some money, you can purchase the entire bundle at once, and get one of them for free. That's getting 8 for the price of 7!

When I am mirroring my arm or leg, the right limb doesn't seem to work correctly. The left one works fine, but the right is all wiggly and weird.

The reason it's breaking has to do with how we're handling the stretchiness. If you look at the elbow or the knee, you can see that we are stretching the limb by modifying the translate value of the joint. This allows us to "stretch" it without doing any scaling that could cause shearing on lower limbs.

If you look at the values on the left limb, you can see that they are all positive values. If you check the right limb, you can see that the translation values are negative because the joint was mirrored.

So the fix is actually not too complicated, you just need to place a multiplyDivide node between whatever is driving the right limb and the translation attribute it's connected to, and make it multiply the input by -1.