How to Add Blend Shapes inbetween blendshapes (Maya)

This process seems a little clumsy but once you understand how to do it it's very simple. NOTE that it's important what order you select these models in so pay attention.

First created your base object duplicate it and create your end goal blendshape version

Select your base model (in my case the open book) hold shift and select

your TARGET blendshape. (the closed book)

Go to the top "Window" menu then submenus Animation Editors>Blendshapes

The blendshape window appears. Go to "Edit" menu in the top of it then "create blendshape"

A new blendshape1 node appears in your Blend shape editor. With a slider from 0.000 - 1.00

Test it out and you will see your blendshape (open book) is working in your TARGET model (closed book). The closed book opens. However at the midpoint .5 in the slider the blend doesn't look very good. Let's fix that.

In your TARGET model (closed book) with the blendshape node take the slider to .5 (or whatever point at which you want to create the transition blendshape) Duplicate the TARGET model at this point.

Make your changes to the new model. Reset your TARGET model back to 0 on

the slider just to be safe. Then select your new inbetween blendshape model

hold shift and select original TARGET model as well. (closed book)

Now go to the Animation menu set top left>Edit deformers>Blendshape>add> press the little settings box next to add.

This brings up the Add blend shapes Target options screen.

At the top you can specify which blendshape slider you are adding this

inebtween to. In my case blendshape1. Change that if you need to. Check

mark "Add in between target" Set the inetbween weight to .5 (or whatever

spot you want the blendshape to effect the slider.

Now for the Target index. Here is an explanation of that value.

If the blend shape deformer blends target object shapes in parallel (the

In-Between creation option was off when you created the blend shape

deformer), you can add the new target object shapes so that they work in

series with one of the existing target object shapes. One quick way you can

identify the appropriate value for Target Index is by looking at the order

of the target sliders in the Blend Shape Editor (Window > Animation Editors

> Blend Shape). Note that in the editor, each target object shape has its

own target slider. In the editor, going from left to right, the Target

Index value for the left-most target slider would be 1, the next 2, and so

on.

If the blend shape deformer blends target object shapes in series (the In-

Between creation option was on when you created the blend shape deformer),

Target Index can only be 1 because there is only one target slider. In this

case, you don’t have to specify Target Index, but you do need to specify

the In-Between Weight.

Based on this explaination you may or may not need a Target index number. In my case I

just needed an inbetween weight. Once your settings are in. Hit apply and

close.

Now your Target (Closed book) will have a slider that goes from the base blendshape to the target blendshape and use the new blendshape in the middle.

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Fix dark or black edge alpha Matte when compositing V-ray renders.

When you render a texture with an Alpha channel in V-ray for Maya you might get dark fuzzy edges where the transparency is apparently bleeding through a dark color when you go to composite. This is in fact the black (or white if it's light) background of the matte showing through from your render. You will need to -UN-premultiply it yourself in post.

3D Object with alpha channel texture

3D Render

At the time of this writing there isn't a way to fix this in V-ray for Maya, but you can do a quick fix in After Effects at the compositing stage with the "Remove Color Matting" effect. Just apply this to your 3D render layer and you are good to go!

NOTE: If you STILL have a black fuzzy edge after applying this effect it probably means that After effects is also premultiplying and you need to RIGHT click the file you are compositing in after effects project list. A menu pops up. Go to Interpret Footage>Main In the alpha setting near the top set Alpha to STRAIGHT - UNMATTED. That should fix the problem!

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Source a MEL script with a shelf icon in Maya

Well it happened  you found a MEL or Python script you just love using over and over, now you just need to create a quick shelf icon so you can start it instantly.

Animate a wheel with an expression in Maya

This is a simple expression based method to animate a wheel or other object spinning. If you need a wheel to roll ALONG a surface. Please comment below and I will find time to write a tutorial on that.

Open your wheel object in Maya.