RfM
RiMel - Use Archives

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Figure 1

Introduction

This tutorial presents three scripts that implement an interface that enables rib archives to be used in one of three ways. Either an archive rib that is specified in the UI can be used,
    - directly, or
    - as part of a pre-baked animation sequence, or
    - as one of a number of archives chosen at random.

Figure 1 shows three polycubes with the "useArchives" UI assigned to each. The UI, figure 2, has been set to "Random" and the "Rib Archive" path set to a directory containing a walk cycle of 25 frames kindly created for me by Bryan Bentley. Consequntly, each cube randomly picks an archive from the "potlegs" parent directory.

Figure 2 - useArchives UI

Step 1 - Install the Scripts

It is assumed the reader has followed the recommendations on customizing RenderMan for Maya presented in the tutorial, "RfM: Customizing".

Download and unzip useArchives.zip and move,
    useArchives.rman
    useArchivesUI.mel, and
    useArchivesRI.mel
to your maya/projects/RfM_mel directory.

Step 2 - Using the Scripts

Launch Maya and check the RenderMan_for_Maya plugin is loaded.
    - create a polyCube,
    - deselect, then re-select the cube,
    - execute the following mel command useArchivesUI();
    - toggle the transform and shape tabs in the attribute editor.
The interface, figure 2, should appear in the shape tab of the cube. Assign PxrDisney to the cube and browse for a suitable rib archive.