BIM and others

As Autodesk Approved Instructor I'm happy to learn about the latest Autodesk acquisition. Take a look at this news... http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/item?id=20307972&siteID=123112

How to use: Select the object to contrain SHIFT+Select all the object that must constrain the first one Execute the script On the target object there's a new attribute called "parentTo" and you can select from list. Now I'm trying to resolve the snap problem and create a simple pyQt interface... This is the base script you can add to the Shelf _________________________________________________ import maya.cmds as cmds attrString = '' selection = cmds.ls (sl=True) target = selection[0] l = len(selection) for i in range(1,l):     cmds.group(em=True, n = 'grp_' + selection[i])     cmds.select('grp_' + selection[i],selection[i])     cmds.parent()     cmds.select('grp_' + selection[i],target)     cmds.parentConstraint(mo=True, weight=1)     cmds.select(cl=True)     attrString += selection[i] + ':'       cmds.select(target, r=True) cmds.addAttr(ln='parent...

During this hot days, I'm studyng new rigging techniques. I'm starting with the torso and here is a little tutorial on how to create a simple stretchy spine with volume preservation. Some simple steps: Create a joint chain with at about 6 or 7 joints, and add some geometry parented on all joints to watch the result. Rename all! Then create two extra single joints aligned to the start and the end of the chain. Call that start_joint and end_joint. Add two geometry and parent joints under that geometry.  Now it's time to create an IKSpline form start joint to end joint Skin two extra joints created before to the curve created with the IKspline and...voilà!!! Move the two big geomtry and something appened! But there's a problem: the chain doesn't stretch. Ok... Use the arcLenght tool to measure the arc lenght of the curve and take note of the "relax lenght" Now open the hypergraph and create "multiplyDivide" node. Simp...

The model is downloaded from creative crash. It's named "The librarian" and is a rigged model. I've just elinated all rig and texture information and I start the project from the beginning. I'm starting from texture!