HR - WIP - 009

HR - WIP - 009, originally uploaded by James D Thompson.

Via Flickr:
Really liking the power of mel.

When I first started with mel I kinda went into it with a bad attitude as "eww its programming, ill just do it to get it out of the way".

The main reason for doing it as its an essential skill for any rigger but now im approaching it in a rigging way (a way i like) its starting to make more sense and the results are quite fun :).

Here ive made a procedure so for every sphere control i make, it also calls on a "blendConnect" procedure which basically makes a +/- Average node, hooks up 5 colour blend nodes then hooks the average out 3D to the spheres controls group.

This means the user moves the sphere in the view-port, then the average node moves its group (which in-turn also moves the child sphere control). The blend colour nodes have true which will contain the values of the pre-set (x, y, z translate where the sphere control should be) and a false (0, 0, 0) which means no movement.

The blend attribute will later be hooked up to the GUI, so as the user slides the slider, the whole arm will blend. Also the user can blend a few sliders (e.g. 0.5 human, 0.7 horse) then they can tweak the sphere controls manually to fit there mesh.