View Full Version : Motionbuilder like rigid body constraint in Maya?

08-20-2007, 09:35 AM

So I have this mocap optical data (blue markers) and I want to solve the head (red cube). In Motionbuilder one can simply create a rigid body constraint between the blue markers and the head and the head will perfectly follow (both in translation and rotation).

How would I do this in Maya? Creating pin constraints between the head and the markers doesn't do it for me, it's very unstable. Maybe there is a ridig mb like body constraint for Maya out there?

08-20-2007, 10:29 AM
Correct, there's no default way to do this. But it's easy to build the links. select all the markers you want to have influence over the head ctr, and point constrain the head to them all. That puts the postion in the centre of all required markers. Now use an aim-constraint using the upper most marker as a world-up vector and the forward most as the aim, with maintain offsets on. That then will extract the rotation data for you.

I've been building a rig to bind direct to MoCap data so the timing on your part is very good ;)

You may also want to take a look at the peel solvers ( just put that into HighEnd or google it)

08-20-2007, 07:03 PM
Hi Mark-J

Well I thought something like that would probably work but it doesn't use all the markers, which can be a drawback because sometimes a marker can be slightly off. But sure, it will probably work okey.

Yeah I've heard about peel solve but isn't that for just the body? It doesn't say anything about facial animation on the site.

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08-20-2007, 07:03 PM