Animation and Rigging Tools: FAQ, Known Issues and Feature Roadmap

[Kettun]

Hey ,

I come to you once again with a problem.

Whenever I try to build this character in maya 2015 student edition this happens:

It gives that error twice in a row, and then the file changes to the saved “satyrin_Export.mb”

saved from a .ma

Here’s the error code that comes from it.

// AbcImport v1.0 using Alembic 1.5.4 (built May 8 2014 13:47:10)
file -f -options “v=1;” -typ “mayaAscii” -o “D:/# Portfolio/3D/Satyrin/Satyrin_rigged_01.ma”;addRecentFile(“D:/# Portfolio/3D/Satyrin/Satyrin_rigged_01.ma”, “mayaAscii”);
// Warning: file: D:/# Portfolio/3D/Satyrin/Satyrin_rigged_01.ma line 243774: Specified default value ‘45’ is out of the range of minValue and maxValue; defaultValue ignored. //
// Warning: file: D:/# Portfolio/3D/Satyrin/Satyrin_rigged_01.ma line 243835: Specified default value ‘45’ is out of the range of minValue and maxValue; defaultValue ignored. //
// Warning: file: D:/# Portfolio/3D/Satyrin/Satyrin_rigged_01.ma line 289241: Selected nodes were ignored since the ‘scene’ flag was used. //
// Warning: line 0: swatches file depend node not found, icon discarded: satyrin_material //
// File read in 6.6 seconds.
updateRendererUI;
updateRendererUI;

Warning: ‘spine1_shapes.spine_1_bust’ is already connected to ‘spine2_shapes.spine_2_bust’.

Error: TypeError: file D:/Applications & Toolkit/Unreal Engine/4.3/Engine/Extras/Maya_AnimationRiggingTools/MayaTools/General/Scripts\ART_skeletonBuilder_UI.py line 15919: ‘NoneType’ object is not iterable

Error: TypeError: file D:/Applications & Toolkit/Unreal Engine/4.3/Engine/Extras/Maya_AnimationRiggingTools/MayaTools/General/Scripts\ART_skeletonBuilder_UI.py line 15919: ‘NoneType’ object is not iterable

[ernstAlert]

@kylawl;109593

So that means I need to copy the Maya Tools somewhere else that is inside my project tree in order to version my rigs?

correct. Currently, there isn’t a way to have your rigs saved outside of the MayaTools directory. This is so to the tool, everything is a relative path to wherever your mayatools are installed. Makes getting all of the poses, rigs, animations, icons, etc a breeze!

[ernstAlert]

@;110637

Not sure if this is the right place, but what I personally want to really see is more documentation and video tutorials about implementation of animations with C++, and as little blueprints as possible, controlling animmontages etc from code for instance. Would love to know. Thanks

You should probably create a thread in content creation or C++ forums, depending on what you’re looking for.

[ernstAlert]

@Nicolas3D;111636

I’m using Maya to create facial rigs in order to combine them with the ART toolkit, but I found that one of the main problem when building face rigs is that it has multiple roots and UE4 don’t like that.

Since I’m wasting time ( testing also other freeware rigs around the web having always the same error ) is there a more or less release date for the Facial Rigging toolkit?

By the way I would love to be a beta tester for the facial rigging tool

It’s super hard to put dates to things right now, with all of the projects we have going on here. If I was dedicated to tools, it’d be a lot easier! I set up a dev blog DevBlog — Jeremy Ernst where you can track current progress of all tool developments.

[ernstAlert]

@Kettun;112023

Hey ,

I come to you once again with a problem.

Whenever I try to build this character in maya 2015 student edition this happens:

http://i.imgur.com/xq44nMj.png

It gives that error twice in a row, and then the file changes to the saved “satyrin_Export.mb”

saved from a .ma

Here’s the error code that comes from it.

There are a few answerhub threads around about this and some ways of fixing it. Here’s a recent one:

Animation and Rigging toolkit error

[Kettun]

@;112127

There are a few answerhub threads around about this and some ways of fixing it. Here’s a recent one:

Animation and Rigging toolkit error - Character & Animation - Epic Developer Community Forums

Yeah, ended up having to save out everything. shoulda checked around a little more. Thanks though. it wasn’t perfectly reliable and I had to re-do all of the skinning. Oh well.

This tool is actually more convenient than way I used to rig. It’s actually kinda tempting to just use it by default for portfolio work.

[JCBKay]

Hello all,

I’m using Maya 2013, Win 7 and am getting an error trying to build a control rig for a character I’ve done. (Right after spending ages making a nice skin weight map as well, oh well)
The progress bar stops at 20% and the project clears as if it has successfully created a character (but it hasn’t, there is nothing in the list)

Error: RuntimeError: file [COLOR="#D3D3D3"](my folder)/MayaTools/General/Scripts\ART_autoRigger.py line 3934: Freeze Transform was not applied because result_leg_ball_l.rotateX has incoming connection. # [/COLOR]

It is preceeded by a fairly long list of errors along the following lines:

Warning: The node ‘invis_legs_blendColors1’ still clashed with a node in the main scene. Renaming to ‘invis_legs_blendColors3’.

Warning: Edits on ‘invis_legs_blendColors1’ may have been lost as a result of renaming. We strongly recommend the use of Namespaces to resolve Name Clashes.

I’m not entirely sure where to begin fixing or circumventing this issue. Any insights would be greatly appreciated!

[_aCe_Total]

I’m not quite sure if it’s me who does things in the wrong order or if there is an error, but after loading one of my character with ‘Edit Character’, I get this error message when I try to press Skeleton Placement. (Maya 2015)

# Error: TypeError: file …/MayaTools/General/Scripts\ART_skeletonBuilder_UI.py line 10831: ‘NoneType’ object is not iterable

[TickleParty]

Hello all,
I pulled down the latest UE4 code 4.3.1, does this code for A.R.T. currently trump the code in the DropBox repository or is the DropBox code always newer?
My reason for asking is that I was having some interface issues, and read through everything I could find, and it seems the common answer is to pull down the DropBox code.
Upon doing so, I found that the files I pulled down from DropBox were dated sometime before the ones I pulled down in UE4 4.3.1… I didn’t know if the UE4 4.3.1 code got created upon installer request, or if it’s actually newer.
This is the first time I’ve ever dealt with UE, and A.R.T.
Please advise.

[ernstAlert]

@JCBKay;112198

Hello all,

I’m using Maya 2013, Win 7 and am getting an error trying to build a control rig for a character I’ve done. (Right after spending ages making a nice skin weight map as well, oh well)
The progress bar stops at 20% and the project clears as if it has successfully created a character (but it hasn’t, there is nothing in the list)

Error: RuntimeError: file [COLOR=“#D3D3D3”](my folder)/MayaTools/General/Scripts\ART_autoRigger.py line 3934: Freeze Transform was not applied because result_leg_ball_l.rotateX has incoming connection. # [/COLOR]

It is preceeded by a fairly long list of errors along the following lines:

Warning: The node ‘invis_legs_blendColors1’ still clashed with a node in the main scene. Renaming to ‘invis_legs_blendColors3’.

Warning: Edits on ‘invis_legs_blendColors1’ may have been lost as a result of renaming. We strongly recommend the use of Namespaces to resolve Name Clashes.

I’m not entirely sure where to begin fixing or circumventing this issue. Any insights would be greatly appreciated!

Hey there!

In your script editor, can you turn on show stack trace under History I believe, and then repaste the error with the new info? It should give a run down of what it was trying to do and that will help narrow it down.
One thing you could check real quick is see if in your export file your joints have any keyframes. If they do, go ahead and delete those and see if that would fix it.

[ernstAlert]

@'[aCe

Total;114204’]I’m not quite sure if it’s me who does things in the wrong order or if there is an error, but after loading one of my character with ‘Edit Character’, I get this error message when I try to press Skeleton Placement. (Maya 2015)

# Error: TypeError: file …/MayaTools/General/Scripts\ART_skeletonBuilder_UI.py line 10831: ‘NoneType’ object is not iterable

hmm, so the code here is trying to cache the weights of your weighted objects. This is the code up until the line it errors out:

#find geo by looking at skinclusters
skinClusters = cmds.ls(type = 'skinCluster')
self.characterGeo = ]


for skin in skinClusters:
    weightedJoints = cmds.skinCluster(skin, q = True, weightedInfluence = True)
    
    for joint in weightedJoints:  <--- ERRORS HERE

so, it found a skinCluster in your scene, and then tried to get the weighted joints for that skinCluster, but it returned None. That seems pretty weird. Can you confirm if you have anything skinned and what the influence list is like?

[ernstAlert]

@SeanyPants;116292

Hello all,
I pulled down the latest UE4 code 4.3.1, does this code for A.R.T. currently trump the code in the DropBox repository or is the DropBox code always newer?
My reason for asking is that I was having some interface issues, and read through everything I could find, and it seems the common answer is to pull down the DropBox code.
Upon doing so, I found that the files I pulled down from DropBox were dated sometime before the ones I pulled down in UE4 4.3.1… I didn’t know if the UE4 4.3.1 code got created upon installer request, or if it’s actually newer.
This is the first time I’ve ever dealt with UE, and A.R.T.
Please advise.

Unfortunately, I’m not notified when they are about to put together a new installer to make sure they have the latest everything in there. My guess is the files in 4.3.1 are dated newer but are actually older than the dropbox versions. I keep the dropbox updated anytime I make any changes at all. I’ll try to make sure 4.4 has the most up to date code though. I have to figure out who to talk to, to make that happen

[anonymous_user_f931b60a]

Hi everyone,
Whenever I try to save/load/copy a pose it gives me this
# Error: IOError: file C:/…/MayaTools/General/Scripts\ART_animationUI.py line 5634: 13 #
What should I do?
I’m using the 64 bit version of Maya 2015 with a student license

[anonymous_user_f931b60a]

@finalfrontier2010;118398

Hi everyone,
Whenever I try to save/load/copy a pose it gives me this
# Error: IOError: file C:/…/MayaTools/General/Scripts\ART_animationUI.py line 5634: 13 #
What should I do?
I’m using the 64 bit version of Maya 2015 with a student license

I tried with the student version of Maya 2014, and it gives the same error

[TheOneWolf]

So when are we getting a progress update on the ART overhaul?

[Enter_Reality]

Hi ,

First of all thanks for all the effort on the ART, it pretty **** cool!!!

I already asked about the facial rig and its progress, but right now I’m testing my own facial rig and I would like to ask you one specific question:

What I did is to import my bones-based facial rig into Maya and parent it to the head bone of the ART skeleton…
The problem comes when I try to build the rig, since ART wont recognize the added facial bones, and so the rig can’t be build…
Is there a way to “tell” ART to ignore those facial bones so that the rig can be build?

I also tried a workaround, that is to add the facial bones after the rig is done ( basically I’m editing the rig after has been created ) but in that case I have all the meshes in read-only ( because of the reference to a file ) and basically I can’t add my facial mesh to the full rigged body, so in the end I have my facial rig parented to the head, but the bones that influence the mesh itself are only the facial bones, thats why I wanted to add the facial bones before the rig is built, so then I can easily paint the necessary weights…

In the end what I need to do is to retain the envelope weights on my character face, but adding the neck bone, so that I can easily paint the neck bone influence on my facial mesh

Hope its clear what I need to do

[ernstAlert]

@QuickBrownFox;118258

I have a few questions for if I may ask them, not necessarily related to ART per say but character animation questions no less.

1.) Is using morph targets for facial animation possible/recommended? Is it possible to make these accessible from the editor and make them key-framable with say like Matinee or animation curves? Is this a recommended way of doing things or does Epic use bone based facial animation?
2.) Is it possible to make a material with a UV offset value that is exposed and editable with Matinee or animation curves?

Thanks.

Hey there!
You can totally use morph targets! That’s actually what I’m doing on Fortnite. And you can actually create the animation in engine if you want by adding a float curve in persona, and then typing in the name of the morph target you want that curve to drive. Then you can animate away!

For your second question, I have no idea. I’m sure it is, but you may want to post up an answer hub thread and have one of our shader dudes give you the best answer. I’m definitely not the best person for that question

[ernstAlert]

@finalfrontier2010;118448

I tried with the student version of Maya 2014, and it gives the same error

Is this only with the poses that come with the download or your own poses? If it errors on your own poses, then that is cause for concern, as it shouldn’t. However, it seems like the poses that come with the download are run through git and it screws up the text file by adding different line endings.

[ernstAlert]

@TheOneWolf;119505

So when are we getting a progress update on the ART overhaul?

I’ve been trying to post weekly on the dev blog:
http://jeremyernst.com/devblog/

I’ll probably do an update tomorrow. Didn’t get a chance to on Friday and have been pretty swamped today!

[ernstAlert]

@Nicolas3D;120499

Hi ,

First of all thanks for all the effort on the ART, it pretty **** cool!!!

I already asked about the facial rig and its progress, but right now I’m testing my own facial rig and I would like to ask you one specific question:

What I did is to import my bones-based facial rig into Maya and parent it to the head bone of the ART skeleton…
The problem comes when I try to build the rig, since ART wont recognize the added facial bones, and so the rig can’t be build…
Is there a way to “tell” ART to ignore those facial bones so that the rig can be build?

I also tried a workaround, that is to add the facial bones after the rig is done ( basically I’m editing the rig after has been created ) but in that case I have all the meshes in read-only ( because of the reference to a file ) and basically I can’t add my facial mesh to the full rigged body, so in the end I have my facial rig parented to the head, but the bones that influence the mesh itself are only the facial bones, thats why I wanted to add the facial bones before the rig is built, so then I can easily paint the necessary weights…

In the end what I need to do is to retain the envelope weights on my character face, but adding the neck bone, so that I can easily paint the neck bone influence on my facial mesh

Hope its clear what I need to do

Thanks!

So we’ve actually had to work around a similar situation. What I ended up doing was adding in the bone based rig after the rig was built, but in the export file. That export file is referenced into the rig file, so everything will work great. You of course, will need to edit your weights then if you want to include bones that the body rig is using, but that’s no biggie in the export file.
Let me know if that makes sense of if you need a demo of that. Sorry for the hack workarounds. I’m definitely working on getting all these features in as soon as I can!