Matches a sparse Maya animCurve to a dense animCurve using a Non-linear Least Squares algorithm.
This plug-in command can be used to help create simplified animCurves using less keyframes, while matching closely to the original densely baked animation curve.
Uses of this plug-in are:
- animCurve sub-division (increasing keyframes)
- animCurve keyframe reduction (used to match to a reference curve)
- Motion Capture animCurve clean-up and re-targeting.
- Animated space switching, while keeping world space positioning (re-parenting a child node into world, while keeping the original keyframe positions, and re-adjusting tangents).
- Calculates animCurve keyframe values, tangents and times to fit a different animCurve (dense or sparse).
- Ability to adjusting:
- Keyframe Value
- Keyframe Time
- Keyframe Tangents
- Creation of new animCurve curve, with given name.
- When start/end keyframe times do not match source curve, scaling the destination curve to the correct start/end times is possible.
- Maya Undo / Redo support.
Here is a simple example of how to use the animCurveMatch command.
start = 1
end = 10
import math
import maya.cmds
# Load Plugin
maya.cmds.loadPlugin('animCurveMatch')
tfm, shp = maya.cmds.polySphere()
maya.cmds.setKeyframe(tfm, attribute='translateX', time=start, value=10)
maya.cmds.setKeyframe(tfm, attribute='translateX', time=end, value=-10)
for i in range(start, end+1):
v = math.cos((float(i-1) / float(end-1)) * math.pi)
maya.cmds.setKeyframe(tfm, attribute='translateZ', time=i, value=v)
maya.cmds.keyTangent(tfm, inTangentType='spline', outTangentType='spline', time=())
srcCurve = maya.cmds.listConnections(tfm + '.translateZ', type='animCurve')[0]
dstCurve = maya.cmds.listConnections(tfm + '.translateX', type='animCurve')[0]
# Run command! This will modify 'dstCurve' animCurve.
maya.cmds.animCurveMatch(srcCurve, dstCurve, iterations=1000)See 'test.py' for more details
The command syntax is:
animCurveMatch <source> <destination> [flags]
The command can be run in both MEL and Python.
MEL:
animCurveMatch "srcCurve" "dstCurve" -iterations 1000;
Python:
maya.cmds.animCurveMatch("srcCurve", "dstCurve", iterations=1000)Here is a table of command flags, as currently specified in the command. Note some are "UNSUPPORTED", these flags have been added, but do not function correctly.
| Flag | Type | Description | Default Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| -name (-n) | string | The name for the new animCurve created, must be a unique name. | name_solved |
| -iterations (-it) | int | Number of iterations to perform. | 1000 |
| -adjustValues (-avl) | bool | Adjust the keyframe values to minimise differences. | true |
| -adjustTimes (-atm) | bool | Adjust the keyframe times to minimise differences. | false |
| -adjustTangentAngles (-ata) | bool | Adjust the keyframe tangent angles to minimise differences. | true |
| -adjustTangentWeights (-atw) | bool | UNSUPPORTED - Adjust the keyframe tangent angles to minimise differences. | false |
| -forceWholeFrames (-fwf) | bool | When adjusting keyframe times, only modify time values by +/- 1.0. | true |
| -scaleTimeKeys (-stk) | bool | Re-maps destination animCurves keyframe times to start/end of source animCurve. | true |
| -addKeys (-ak) | bool | UNSUPPORTED - Allow adding keyframes to reduce the error. | false |
| -newCurve (-nw) | bool | If true, the destination animCurve is copied and renamed, otherwise the destination animCurve is modified in-place. | false |
- C++ compiler with support for C++11
- CMake 2.6+
- levmar 2.6+ (http://users.ics.forth.gr/~lourakis/levmar/)
- Autodesk Maya 2016+
Run the following in a Bash-like shell:
Building Levmar is quite simple. Levmar does not have an 'make install', and it will only compile a static library, which we will link against in the next step.
$ tar -xf levmar-2.6.tgz
$ cd levmar-2.6
$ mkdir build
$ cd build
$ cmake -DNEED_F2C=0 -DHAVE_LAPACK=0 -DBUILD_DEMO=0 ..
-- The C compiler identification is GNU 4.4.7
-- The CXX compiler identification is GNU 4.4.7
-- Check for working C compiler: /usr/bin/cc
-- Check for working C compiler: /usr/bin/cc -- works
-- Detecting C compiler ABI info
-- Detecting C compiler ABI info - done
-- Check for working CXX compiler: /usr/bin/c++
-- Check for working CXX compiler: /usr/bin/c++ -- works
-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info
-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info - done
-- Configuring done
-- Generating done
-- Build files have been written to: /path/to/example/directory/levmar-2.6/build
$ make
Scanning dependencies of target levmar
[ 14%] Building C object CMakeFiles/levmar.dir/lm.c.o
[ 28%] Building C object CMakeFiles/levmar.dir/Axb.c.o
[ 42%] Building C object CMakeFiles/levmar.dir/misc.c.o
In file included from /home/davidc/bin/levmar/test/levmar-2.6/misc.c:47:
/path/to/example/directory/levmar-2.6/misc_core.c:577:2: warning: #warning LAPACK not available, LU will be used for matrix inversion when computing the covariance; this might be unstable at times
In file included from /path/to/example/directory/levmar-2.6/misc.c:64:
/path/to/example/directory/levmar-2.6/misc_core.c:577:2: warning: #warning LAPACK not available, LU will be used for matrix inversion when computing the covariance; this might be unstable at times
[ 57%] Building C object CMakeFiles/levmar.dir/lmlec.c.o
/path/to/example/directory/levmar-2.6/lmlec.c:39:2: warning: #warning Linearly constrained optimization requires LAPACK and was not compiled!
[ 71%] Building C object CMakeFiles/levmar.dir/lmbc.c.o
[ 85%] Building C object CMakeFiles/levmar.dir/lmblec.c.o
/path/to/example/directory/levmar-2.6/lmblec.c:39:2: warning: #warning Combined box and linearly constrained optimization requires LAPACK and was not compiled!
[100%] Building C object CMakeFiles/levmar.dir/lmbleic.c.o
/path/to/example/directory/levmar-2.6/lmbleic.c:40:2: warning: #warning Linear inequalities constrained optimization requires LAPACK and was not compiled!
Linking C static library liblevmar.a
[100%] Built target levmar
$ ls -l -h liblevmar.a
-rw-rw-r--. 1 user user 97K Aug 22 13:19 liblevmar.a
Note we do not use the LAPACK library, we do not need it. If you would like to compile with LAPACK, you'll need to change your cmake flags accordingly.
To compile the Maya plugin, run the commands.
$ cd <project root>
$ mkdir build
$ cd build
$ cmake \
-DMAYA_INCLUDE_PATH=/path/to/maya/include \
-DMAYA_LIB_PATH=/path/to/maya/lib \
-DLEVMAR_LIB_PATH=/path/to/levmar/lib
-DLEVMAR_INCLUDE_PATH=/path/to/levmar/include ..
$ make -j 4
Now lets install into our home directory maya 'plug-ins' directory.
$ mkdir ~/maya/<maya version>/plug-ins
$ cp animCurveMatch.so ~/maya/<maya version>/plug-ins
- Adjusting Tangent Weights does not currently work.
- Adding or removing keyframes is not supported.