MAYA // Playblast banding issues

When playblasting, there are banding issues, gradient/lighting not smooth, add the environnement variable in the maya.env file (in the pref folder of maya)

MAYA_FLOATING_POINT_RT_PLAYBLAST = 1

MAYA - PYTHON - WINDOWS // rename file with replace string

# rename files in directory replace string by another
import os

#r at the beginning of the path so the filename starting with a number sont bien reconnu - raw string literals
renamePath = r"O:\_WORK\PERSO\__SCRIPTS\01_MAYA\_SHELF_custom\shelf_geo_icons"
renamePath = renamePath.replace('\\','/')

# loop and rename
if (renamePath != '') :
    for filename in os.listdir(renamePath):
        if (len(filename.split('.'))==2): # check if file is not a folder (if it contains an extension)
            print filename
            newName = filename.replace("ttt","") # replace
            os.rename(os.path.join(renamePath, filename), os.path.join(renamePath, newName))

MAYA // toggle pan Zoom shortcut

Very handy, set the same shortcut for these commands :

while pressing in continue you can 2D zoom and pan in the camera.
while pressing quickly it enbale/disable the 2D pan zoom

MAYA // reorder channel attributes keeping connection

"Actually is very simple to reorder them, just right click on the attribute delete it and then hit undo, your attribute will be the last one in the list."
source

MAYA - VRAY // Reflection RGB

source

MAYA // toggle click and drag

selectPref -clickDrag (!`selectPref -q -clickDrag`);
useful for animation in some case to click and drag an object with one click

MAYA // procedurally extrude all faces even if topology change

Useful for adding thickness to animated mesh, add an extrude then edit the component list :
setAttr "polyExtrudeFace4.inputComponents" -type "componentList" 1 "f[*]";
source

MAYA // offset an animation with a node - frameCache

to offset an animation with a node, create a frameCache node, connect an animated channel to its stream channel, and use the past or future values for the offset.
Connection has to be done with scripting :
connectAttr frameCache1.past[14] key.translateY; -> will offset of 14 frames
source

MAYA // Twist start end IK spline without advanced twist controls

twist from start :
set attribute on ikHandle like this : twist = roll * -1
for example, roll=150 and twist=-150

setup exemple where MD_invert_roll_1, input2X is set to -1

VRAY // Diffuse pass not flat color

Sometimes the Diffuse RE of V-ray is not full flat colors but has some sort of shading/fresnel.
That is normal as it's the Diffuse Filter RE and is affected by reflections. To have full flat colors on compositing do the following :
Diffuse RE divided by the invert of the Reflection Filter RE
source

MAYA 2017 / Dash features - power attribute editor function

example : Alt + right-click anywhere in the Channel Box.
r(number) Assigns a random number between 0 and 'number'.

source : maya help

Maya / Vray _ random color for all objects

"- add extra vray attributes to a samplerInfo node (this will expose additional outputs to the samplerInfo)
- connect the samplerInfo.vrayRndomByID to a ramp's vCoord (if you're using a vRamp) OR uCoord (for a uRamp) | or both, if you intend to switch between ramp modes
--> the ramp's position and color values will be the range of colors to be distributed to the objects
--> plug the ramp into a shader and use the same shader on lots of objects"

source

Maya _ render queue batch .bat file

To launch multiple batch render for maya one at a time without render manager and without launching maya, just create a .txt file and rename it .bat, edit it with the following :

C:\Progra~1\Autodesk\Maya2016\bin\render  "C:\Users\xxxx\xxxx\scene01.ma"
C:\Progra~1\Autodesk\Maya2016\bin\render  "C:\Users\xxxx\xxxx\scene02.ma"

PAUSE

VRAY/Nuke _ motion blur velocity pass

http://docs.sharktacos.com/misc.php?action=help&hid=33

MAYA _ replace skinned mesh

To replace a skinned mesh by another : SKin -> Substitute geometry
very useful to replace with a High Res Mesh or when a mesh is messed up (uv,normals) it also keeps the deformer but not the blendshapes.  source A   source B

MAYA _ Ik spring solver

Ik spring solver is useful on  multiple joint chain for proportional or custom rotation of the joints with the ik. Just enter this mel command to be able to create them : ikSpringSolver;

MAYA _ parent object to particle

select particle shape node and a transform node, then in connection editor :

MAYA _ Light linking relationship editor not working

if light linking isn't working with this message:
// Error: file: C:/Program Files/Autodesk/Maya2016/scripts/others/relationshipEditor.mel line 725: No object matches name: shaderBallGeom1
Just close the hypershade ! source

MAYA _ Camera projection mapping not HD format

For a camera texture projection in HD format, nothing special to do but for a non HD format :
- get the ratio of the format (width/height=ratio)
- set the Film Aspect Ratio attribute of the camera to this ratio
- set Fit Resolution Gate to Overscan
- in the projected texture attribute set to Match camera film gate
source

MAYA _ Motion path no flip

Sometimes while using motion path, flipping is hard to avoid, here is one solution :
- motion path your main object to the path "path1" blue curve
- duplicate "path1, rename it to "path2", offset it, delete history and edit it to shows the direction pink curve
- create a locator "loc1" and motion path it to the path "path2"
- connect the Uvalue of "path1" to "path2" so they have the same speed
- in the motionpath1 attribute, set follow, object up and in the world up object field enter "loc1"

EDIT : Actually the best method is by far to use a curve on surface as motion path and choose the normal type. To create a curve on surface, first create a surface, then make it live and create a curve on it.