Custom Toolbars and Controls

“To achieve the complex and natural motion of human characters, the rigger can use scripting to automate some of the movements and help speed up the animation process”(Murtack, 3).

In order to access certain controls and tools quickly to further speed up production and ensure an efficient workflow the user must customize their toolbars and controls.

In Softimage 2011, a custom toolbar is a floating bar that contains commands and access to menus; these are in the form of one-click buttons. (Unknown, 1) The function of custom toolbars is to have a quick access to commonly used controls and menus that have no shortcuts in the actual program. The program is limited in its access to certain functions and controls and so when one sets up a scene, the availability of these controls can be configured according to the user’s preference through toolbars. An example of such controls is a select all custom button. Instead of selecting all of the components one at a time, one can do this once for the scripting, take it into the toolbar and a button will be created and once accessed, the full selection will appear. This helps with animation and makes the process less time consuming.

Certain areas of the rig need to be controlled differently. Some areas only need to rotate, some to translate and some to scale. Some like to use the method of setting specific transform controls to specific parts of the body. This is done in XSI by just selecting the control point, selecting property and accessing the transform setup. There, one can choose the specific transform tool they will need for this control point. This is a time saving method as it prevents one from having to keep switching to the tool they want.

An example of controls is to reconfigure ‘sliders’ which are control points usually associated with fingers. One can adapt new sliders to the fingers and alter the control over them. This is done by firstly deleting the default sliders, creating a set of parameters and specifying a driving force( a control null as an example) and a driven target (the finger/s). You then link the two and set relative values and this is done through the parameter setup that uses a set of 0 to 1.

Now adding to this, one can also make sets of toolbars for transform points. In XSI one can create a tool, use the script and drag it onto the tool bar to create a button. So in my own project (I used the default rig and set certain transform settings for specific control points) I used the translate tool for moving the feet as a default. Then I made a toolbar that consisted of buttons that when accessed, automatically selected the rotate tool for the appropriate body part. This saved me time on making the man move through space and animating him as I did not have to take extra steps to get to the same desired result. The great thing about toolbars with XSI is that you can import pictures as your buttons which makes it easier to find for the eye and eye-catching.

I decided to use my own setup and project because I wanted to test out the toolbars and prove the efficiency of the toolbars. The toolbars proved to an effective way of accessing control tools and accessing areas of the body simultaneously and quickly.

I tried to animate my project and move the man along the z-axis and with the toolbars and control default I created, the animation was quicker than without those custom settings. For future projects this type of customization is essential when working on any project whether small or big because time is costly and workflow slows down when things are not organized.

Works Cited

·         Murtack, J. Softimage XSI: Tutorial: Scripted Operated Shoulder. Avid Technology Inc. 2003

·         Unknown. The Softimage XSI Interface. http://www.kxcad.net/Softimage_XSI/Softimage_XSI_Documentation/interface_TheSOFTIMAGEXSIInterface.htm