#1 11-16-2011 10:33 pm

cgjedi
From: Canada
Registered: 11-16-2011
Posts: 175

New XSheet timing tool

For those that know about Graph Editor Redux for Maya, I've just released a new tool called DPT - Digital Pose Test.  It's an XSheet timing tool to help out with blocking animation.

http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downl … r-redux--3

Last edited by cgjedi (11-16-2011 10:34 pm)


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#2 11-16-2011 11:25 pm

Camaro
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Re: New XSheet timing tool

Cool, but, how do you get Maya it to recognize PyQt libraries? I remember it being a pain the last time I tried it.


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#3 11-16-2011 11:42 pm

Horganovski
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Re: New XSheet timing tool

Sorry if it's a silly question, but where do we find this? Is it now built in to your Graph Editor tool or is it something separate?

Cheers,
Brian

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#4 11-17-2011 1:22 am

BlurFrame
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Re: New XSheet timing tool

Could you provide a simple text file on how to launch the DPT and how to use it. Seems like an interesting tool.

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#5 11-17-2011 4:53 am

cgjedi
From: Canada
Registered: 11-16-2011
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Re: New XSheet timing tool

So, DPT is launched from Graph Editor Redux.  It's grouped wth the buttons where you launch the Trax editor or Dope sheet.

Yes, getting the full PyQt4 installed is a bit of a pain.  It can be confusing.  I've just added a PDF that explains where to get the files and how to install it to the right version of Maya.  Hopefully this will be helpful if you've had difficulties in the past.  Of course I'm biased, but I think it is worth the extra effort.

I hope to put together some video tutorials shortly on how to use this.  Basically, you select the controllers in Maya that you have saved keyframes on and that you want to time.  Press "Get Poses" and DPT will playblast a frame for each keyframe and put thumbnails in the XSheet.  Drag and drop the thumbnails to change the timing.  Left-click moves the thumbnail.  Right-click copies it.  Use Ctrl to multi-select thumbnails.  Right-click will pop up a menu where you can do many operations - copy, cut, paste, ripple cut, ripple paste, add frames, and change timing to ones, twos, threes and fours.  When done, click "Send Timing" and your Maya scene will update to the timing and the curves will have stepped tangents.  The playback controls include a scrubbing slider and an interactive way to change fps, play forward, play reverse.  Another cool thing is that while the sequence is playing you can modify the timing of the XSheet and see the edits live.

Last edited by cgjedi (11-17-2011 4:55 am)


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#6 11-17-2011 5:55 am

Horganovski
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Re: New XSheet timing tool

Thanks for the explanation, but I seem to not be having much luck with this, I have Python 2.6 installed, I have PyQt4 folder and sip.Qt4 into the correct directory, I have the plugin loaded, but when I run the mel or python command to load I get the following error

Code:

GER -load;
// Warning:                                                 "freeTanButton",   "lockTanButton" };
 // 
// Warning: "C:/Program Files/Autodesk/Maya2012/bin/plug-ins/scripts/graphEditorPanel.mel" line 46.49 : Global variable is already initialized; this occurrence is ignored. // 
GER: Loaded C:/Program Files/Autodesk/Maya2012/bin/plug-ins/scripts/graphEditorPanel.mel

Cheers,
Brian

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#7 11-17-2011 6:02 am

cgjedi
From: Canada
Registered: 11-16-2011
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Re: New XSheet timing tool

What you included looks like just a warning (which I don't know why) and not an actual error.  Have you tried to bring up the Graph Editor?  For 2012 you launch Redux by choosing between Suite, Classic and Redux in the "View/Toolbar Mode" menu


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#8 11-17-2011 6:03 am

coolbird22
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Re: New XSheet timing tool

@cgjedi ..... I think I might be asking for too much here, but cannot this be compiled as a standalone plugin, instead of an addon to the Graph Editor Redux ?? A dependency on GER will only limit the number of people who get to using it, namely because I believe there are people who would rather use the plain jane version of Graph Editor rather than the the Redux


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#9 11-17-2011 6:07 am

Horganovski
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Re: New XSheet timing tool

Thanks, I realized that and got GER loaded up, but pressing the button for the pose test tool throws up the following error

Code:

# Error: IOError: file C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2012\bin\python26.zip\xml\etree\ElementTree.py line 579: 2 #

I appreciate any advice.

To be completely honest, what coolbird22 said resonates with me too.. I'm quite happy with the standard GE too and am mainly just interested in checking out the pose timing tool. Is there a command that can launch it from the standard UI ?

Cheers,
Brian

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#10 11-17-2011 6:11 am

cgjedi
From: Canada
Registered: 11-16-2011
Posts: 175

Re: New XSheet timing tool

Unfortunately it can't be compiled as a standalone plugin since I'm using features of the PyQt4 package which Maya doesn't come with.  The XSheet and the movie player use features not available otherwise.

If you mean that you would want to launch DPT without launching Redux.  Well sure, but the extra functionality in Redux really goes hand in hand with DPT.


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"you will find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view"
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#11 11-17-2011 6:18 am

cgjedi
From: Canada
Registered: 11-16-2011
Posts: 175

Re: New XSheet timing tool

Horganovski wrote:

Thanks, I realized that and got GER loaded up, but pressing the button for the pose test tool throws up the following error

Code:

# Error: IOError: file C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2012\bin\python26.zip\xml\etree\ElementTree.py line 579: 2 #

I appreciate any advice.

That's a head scratcher.  I don't have an answer right now for that.

Could you give more info as to OS and what link you used to get PyQt4?

Last edited by cgjedi (11-17-2011 4:21 pm)


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#12 11-17-2011 7:09 pm

Camaro
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Re: New XSheet timing tool

Got that exact same error. Tried checking out the source and it's way over my head hmm

The GER by itself is freakin' sweet though, I think this will be a new tool in my workflow smile


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#13 11-17-2011 9:54 pm

Horganovski
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Re: New XSheet timing tool

cgjedi wrote:

Could you give more info as to OS and what link you used to get PyQt4?

Sure, I used the PyQt 4.7.3 Qt x64 Maya.zip link on the http://nathanhorne.com/?p=204 page.
I'm running Maya 2012 (SAP) on Win 7 64 bit.

Cheers,
Brian

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#14 11-17-2011 9:58 pm

cgjedi
From: Canada
Registered: 11-16-2011
Posts: 175

Re: New XSheet timing tool

Ok, this is why I said this could be confusing.  By what you wrote it looks like you are using the wrong PyQt4 for Maya2012.  That link is for Maya2011 only.  This link is for Maya2012:
http://nathanhorne.com/?p=322



Horganovski wrote:

cgjedi wrote:

Could you give more info as to OS and what link you used to get PyQt4?

Sure, I used the PyQt 4.7.3 Qt x64 Maya.zip link on the http://nathanhorne.com/?p=204 page.
I'm running Maya 2012 (SAP) on Win 7 64 bit.

Cheers,
Brian


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"you will find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view"
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#15 11-17-2011 11:54 pm

Horganovski
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Re: New XSheet timing tool

Thanks, I uninstalled everything and reinstalled that version, but still get the same error when I press the button to open Pose Test.

Cheers,
Brian

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#16 11-17-2011 11:58 pm

Camaro
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Re: New XSheet timing tool

Yeah I have PyQt installed correctly and still get the error as well. I don't think it has anything to do with PyQt.


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#17 11-18-2011 3:56 am

dgovil
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Re: New XSheet timing tool

Got the same/similar error as above. A little more detailed though.

Code:

# Error: 2
# Traceback (most recent call last):
#   File "<maya console>", line 1, in <module>
#   File "C:/MyData/Programming/My_3D/MayaScripts/GER/GER_2012/scripts\rb_GraphEditorReduxGUI.py", line 3141, in ger_DigitalPoseTestCB
#   File "C:/MyData/Programming/My_3D/MayaScripts/GER/GER_2012/scripts\rb_DPT.py", line 114, in <module>
#   File "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2012\Python\lib\site-packages\PyQt4\uic\__init__.py", line 200, in loadUiType
#     winfo = compiler.UICompiler().compileUi(uifile, code_string, from_imports)
#   File "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2012\Python\lib\site-packages\PyQt4\uic\Compiler\compiler.py", line 119, in compileUi
#     w = self.parse(input_stream)
#   File "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2012\Python\lib\site-packages\PyQt4\uic\uiparser.py", line 871, in parse
#     document = parse(filename)
#   File "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2012\bin\python26.zip\xml\etree\ElementTree.py", line 862, in parse
#     tree.parse(source, parser)
#   File "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2012\bin\python26.zip\xml\etree\ElementTree.py", line 579, in parse
#     source = open(source, "rb")
# IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'C:/MyData/Programming/My_3D/MayaScripts/GER/GER_2012/scripts\\../ui/dptMainWindow.ui' #

could it be that you left a couple hardcoded file locations in there by accident?

Also just on a usability front, not a huge fan of the default icons. Find some of them hard to read compared to the stock icons but atleast they're all in the folder so we're free to create our own.


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#18 11-18-2011 6:32 am

cgjedi
From: Canada
Registered: 11-16-2011
Posts: 175

Re: New XSheet timing tool

dgovil wrote:

Got the same/similar error as above. A little more detailed though.

Thanks very much for the more detailed error message.  That's exactly what I needed.  Wow, this is an obscure error.  No, I didn't leave a hardcoded path - but yet, there it is.  I won't get into details but it has to do with compiling the .pyc files.

I've released an updated version.  Please try it out and see if it now works properly.  [fingers crossed]


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"you will find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view"
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#19 11-18-2011 6:53 am

dgovil
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Re: New XSheet timing tool

Hey,
yup it works great now.
Quick question: does the DPT always default to stepped keys? Just a suggestion, but might be worth adding the ability to respect keyframe type.

Also I don't know if it's just on my end, but the dptMainWindow.ui is missing all the icons for playback. I opened it up in Qt Creator to take a look, and none of the icons are set except for the play button(which doesn't show up in Maya for some reason). I tried relinking all the images but Maya still doesn't want to show them

And just for convenience sake, how do you keep the plugin as an autoload? It likes to dissapear for every new session

Thanks! You going to the VES thing on saturday?

Last edited by dgovil (11-18-2011 7:01 am)


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#20 11-18-2011 8:54 am

Camaro
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Re: New XSheet timing tool

Pretty much everything dgovil just said.


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#21 11-18-2011 3:17 pm

Horganovski
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Re: New XSheet timing tool

Same for me too, it's loading now and working as far as I can tell, but no icons are showing up for the transport buttons.

Cheers,
Brian

Last edited by Horganovski (11-18-2011 3:17 pm)

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#22 11-18-2011 4:16 pm

cgjedi
From: Canada
Registered: 11-16-2011
Posts: 175

Re: New XSheet timing tool

Ok, thanks.  I appreciate the patience as I get the kinks ironed out.  It's getting closer and I'll release yet another update sometime this weekend.


"Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well."
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"you will find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view"
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#23 11-18-2011 4:53 pm

Horganovski
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Re: New XSheet timing tool

Thank you, appreciate the work you're putting in here, this looks like a really handy tool.

One minor thing I notice when trying it out, it's quite easy (for me anyway!) to drag a pose on top of another one by accident and then Undo doesn't seem to correct that, so it's possible to loose poses this way.

Cheers,
Brian

Last edited by Horganovski (11-18-2011 4:54 pm)

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#24 11-19-2011 4:39 pm

cgjedi
From: Canada
Registered: 11-16-2011
Posts: 175

Re: New XSheet timing tool

I've released another version of GraphEditorRedux with DPT.  I'm confident I've solved the issues now.  Keep the suggestions coming - this is only version 1 of DPT and I have much more planned to add.


"Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well."
Lord Chesterfield, 1747
"you will find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view"
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#25 11-19-2011 4:54 pm

Horganovski
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Re: New XSheet timing tool

Very cool, the icons are working now : )

A few suggestions I'd have after a very brief look at it (apart from Undo as mentioned above).

1 - It's a little messy dropping the contents of the GER folder into the plugins folder IMO, instead of dropping new folders called plugins, docs, scripts etc I'd much rather drop the entire GER folder in with maybe just the main plugin file outside that if needed. I can imagine going to install another plugin in a couple of months and wondering what all these extra folders in the plugin folder are for.

2 - It's not immediately obvious to me how best to use the speed slider, how do we know when it's playing at the default speed/same speed as the Maya project? Maybe a text field with the FPS in it might help clarify things. I don't find the slider that easy to use for changing the speed right now as the range seems much too big for most practical purposes. I might play something at half speed or a little faster but never beyond double speed really.

3 - I'd like previous pose/next pose buttons more than the increase/decrease speed buttons. I think they would be generally more useful for timing a sequence. Or maybe it could just detect the same hotkeys as the standard timeline and use the < and > keys for prev/next keys.

4 - I'd like a button that would insert a frame (and move all frames after that down by a frame, like ripple editing) on what ever frame is currently selected. I think that might be quicker for quick timing tweaks than right clicking and choosing how many frames to add. Pretty much like the insert frame range option but just defaulting to one frame so that you could quickly tap the button to add them in rather than right clicking.

Hope that's useful and thanks again for your work on this.

Cheers,
Brian

Last edited by Horganovski (11-19-2011 5:03 pm)

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