[NanoGator]

Hey All,

I work at a small studio that's working on an all CG animated movie using Lightwave. In the process of working on this movie, we've developed a couple of plugins to streamline the rigging and animation process.



First is AutoRig. It's a tool designed to rig any character quickly and easily. The video really tells the story better than I can, have a peek:

Click here for a demonstration video of AutoRig in action.(10.05 megabytes) DivX 5.2 required.



Next is Controller. On the surface, this plugin looks like an ordinary character picker. But there's really a lot more to it. Have a peek at these next videos and you'll see what I mean. I really think you'll be impressed.

Click here for an introduction to Controller.(10.05 megabytes) DivX 5.2 required.

Click here for a demonstration of how to customize Controller.(8.22 megabytes) DivX 5.2 required.

Click here for a more detailed look at customizing Controller.(11.99 megabytes) DivX 5.2 required.

Maestro will be available for sale, soon. If you'd like to recieve an email when it's made available, feel free to email maestro AT nanogator DOT com. (Sorry, trying to avoid spam...)

If anybody has any questions, please, feel free to post them!

[hoopti]

Any idea what the price point will be? Will it be Mac Compatible? Will it be able to save, export and import rigs? How does it work in concert with weightmaps or will that still need to be handled manually? Just wanted to ask a few basic questions.

Thanks,
Hoop

[NanoGator]

Hey Hoop

-The price is still a little fuzzy but it's looking like $150 with an introductory price of $120.

-Yep, it'll be Mac Compatible. (Nice feature of LScript!)

-I'm not sure how to answer your rigs question, so I'll try to explain it this way:

A rig file is very much like an LScript Commander Macro. With Maestro, you get the rig we demonstrated at the video. So you'll get a set of skelegons + the rig file to do the work on them to support the features you saw in the video. You can apply that to any character so long as they have the skelegons we provided. (Although, I should mention, there's nothing particularly special about those skelegons other than they have names the script is looking for. You wouldn't run into any trouble if you made your own skels with the same name.) Down the road, we'll provide more rigs. (Also, there's nothing preventing others from generating their own rigs and making them available.)

Creating a rig file is much like using LScript Commander. Let's say you created your own skeleton with IK settings on it. If you were to have LScript Commander open while setting it up, you'd see the commands there to do it. Technically you could copy and paste that into a rig file, execute it with AutoRig, and it'd work! We go a little deeper, though. We've expanded on LSC's capabilities to make rigging friendlier. For example, we created a feature that allows you to create a Null with Item Shape applied and configured. (LSC doesn't provide that...) We've done some really cool stuff there.

The real neat thing about this approach is that anything can be rigged, not just characters. I could see somebody rigging a bunch of cars this way. Just make the pieces, run the script, and you get a car with steerable wheels, controllers for the windows, and reclining seats.

Does that answer your questions about rigging?

- Weight Maps? We made the rig to require as few as possible. However, there's nothing stopping you from using your own. If you were to go into skelegon tree and assign weight maps, it'd work just like using ordinary skelegons in modeler. The nice thing about these skelegons is that the script is only reacting to their names. There's no hidden data or anything in them. So if you wanted to assign weight maps, etc, you'd be fine.

Proton's Ninja has only 3 weight maps in the video. One for his head, and one for each eye. Everything is is simple bone deformation.

Hope that helps!

[Endorphin]

i really don't understand the lame reactions to this....this is a GREAT plugin!
This is Motionbuilder for LW...
very good work...releasedate????

btw: last link not working??

[Noratio]

Like endorphin says, something we've been missing.

[CountVlad]

I have a question about where to install Maestro. Where does it go? I am extremely new to lightwave and am very confused about where to install all these plugins and everything else. Can anyone PLease HElp me out here???
Thanks in advance for everything
CountVlad

P.S.
I think lightwave and all these plugins are awesome

[NanoGator]

Originally posted by CountVlad I have a question about where to install Maestro. Where does it go? I am extremely new to lightwave and am very confused about where to install all these plugins and everything else. Can anyone PLease HElp me out here??? Thanks in advance for everything CountVlad P.S. I think lightwave and all these plugins are awesome

Hi!

Here's what ya do: From Layout, press 'o'. You'll see the options screen for Layout. At the very top there's a field called "Content Directory". Basically, whatever folder that's set to is where Maestro goes.

If ya need further help, pls lemme know which version of LW you're using.

[CountVlad]

OOps sorry about that I forgot to tell you I am using LW7.5
I have already begun to download plugins and lwscripts but do not know where to put them in order for me to get them to work.
Thanks for your quick reply
CountVlad

[NanoGator]

Originally posted by CountVlad OOps sorry about that I forgot to tell you I am using LW7.5 I have already begun to download plugins and lwscripts but do not know where to put them in order for me to get them to work. Thanks for your quick reply CountVlad

Ah, ya meant in general. Maestro's a little specific about where it goes, but most plugins aren't as picky. (we're working to alleviate that...)

Well, here's what I do: [list=a][*] Create a plugins folder that you can easily maintain, backup, etc. [*] Put all your new plugins (.lsc, .ls, .p) into this folder. [*] From within Layout, see the "File/Layout/Rendering..." pulldowns? Pull down Layout and select "Plug-ins", then "Edit Plug-ins". [*] On the right, there's a two buttons: "Add Plug-ins" and "Scan Directory". Use "Add Plugs" if you want to add a new plugin. Use "Scan Directory" if you want to go through every single plugin and install it. [/list=a]

It's important to note that there are a number of different types of plugins out there. Different plugins are started in different ways. For example, a 'Motion Plugin' is run by selecting the appropriate item, pressing 'm' and clickong on "Add Modifier". A Master Class plugin, however, is loaded by going to the Scene tab and clicking on 'Master Plugins'. That sort of make sense?

[CountVlad]

Wow thanks that helps tons ...
but as I said in the beginging I am extremely new to lightwave and am so confused about it it is much harder than Cinema4D or Poser5 or even vue d'Esprit4.
I am going to l;earn lightwave even if it kills me LOL.
As I can spend hours and hours working with it as I
am retired and just doing this stuff for fun and as a hobby!

I will prolly have tons and rons of questions later on though so please bear with me till I learn this program
Thanks again