udon3d

This has been a problem with Maya on Windows 11. It usually crops up when you get a new machine with Windows 11 English pre-installed. But when the problem does happen, it's a real pain in the butt. I've fixed this a couple of times in the past, but I keep forgetting how to fix it. Therefore, I'm making this post! For you, and for my future-self. Step 1 (Change the Locale of your computer) 1. Open Control Panel → Clock and Region → Region 2. Go to the Administrative tab 3. Click Change system locale... 4. Set it to Japanese (Japan) and check the box for Beta: Use Unicode UTF-8 for worldwide language support (if the checkbox is available) 5. Restart your computer Now, your Maya will be able to read/write files and paths that have Japanese characters! BUT... Maya's interface is now all in Japanese... :cries: To change the Maya interface back to English you will need to add two Windows environment variables (NOT Maya environment variables!). The two variables are exactly the same, but one needs to be added to your User env vars and the other to the System env vars. Step 2 (Add Windows env variables) 1. Open Windows Search and type Environment Variables, then select Edit the system environment variables. 2. Click Environment Variables…. (bottom-right button) 3. Under System Variables, click New…. 4. Set: Variable name: MAYA_UI_LANGUAGE Variable value: en_US 5. Add the same variable to the User variables on the top of the window. Reboot the machine and startup Maya. Maya should now be able to read/write Japanese characters, and the UI should be in English!

I've been running into audio clip problems in Motionbuilder where, if I have a lot of .wav clips, the audio does some funky skipping/repeating when I playback the scene. In the above link, adjust the audio buffer size in your Motionbuilder preference file (need a text editor), and you should be good-to-go. I adjusted the buffer from the default "32" to "512" and things seem to be running a lot better now -- no repeating audio during playback (so far). If I run into problems again, I might try to increase that buffer value to something like 1024, but for now, I think 512 is enough.

Rotate Order for Hybrid shoulder FK/IK arc controller. And possibly for wrist Rots. ZXY might be the way to go.

An oldie, but a goodie: a simple way to loop your textures. Basically, right-click and edit the expression of Image Number in the file texture node.  At the end of the existing expression, add %X (where “X” is the number of frames in the sequence). ie.  file1.frameExtension=frame%5 This signals to loop a 5-frame sequence. Check the original, almost 20-year-old post (!!) here.

Time Warper is an excellent tool to control animation speed on a node-by-node (or character-by-character) basis.  Instead of Timewarp controlling the time computation of the whole scene, individual nodes can have their own Timewarp curve applied. Download here. If you are having trouble executing the script, check this.

Check this post for more info.

As an animator, control pickers are very essential to my workflow.  Although, in a pinch, I have made my own Selection Sets to get by (especially on smaller, fast-moving projects), having Pickers set up for animation makes life so much easier. The de-facto picker for a long time was the Anim School Picker.  It was customizable, and quite user-friendly.  Although technically “free”, you needed to sign up to their email list in order to download it. Recently, though, the Anim School Picker changed to a Paid-for model.  I understand that they need to raise funds to keep their business going -- I am definitely not against that.  But for indy artists, searching out other free alternatives is needed. The following are a couple of free alternatives to Anim School Picker.  Even though they’re free, I would argue that they are actually better than the once-reigning Anim School Picker.  They are definitely worth a go. Dreamwall Picker ABC Picker (Japanese)

I did this for both monitors, and things seem to be working very well.  I can wake-up the PC and both monitors are now displaying an extended view of the desktop and contents, as expected. Do a search for “Dell Display Manager” and hopefully you’ll find the latest version.

If you’re doing a lot of different work (animating, doing paintovers for feedback, checking schedule stuff on Excel, etc.), being able to lock a window on top of everything else helps. MenuTools allows for keeping windows on top, as well as adjust their transparency.  Install the application, then right-click on an application’s title bar to bring up extra options.  Windows only. https://github.com/navossoc/MenuTools

Use the de-facto character rig picker, “Animschool Picker” for the occasions where a fancy UI is in order.  For those other, simpler times, check out aweControlPicker.

A nice tool to re-order your custom attributes.  It is a bit buggy, but I’ve found that the “Add Divider” function is useful.  The tool moves these dividers up and down the channel list properly.  This beats the hell out of going into the .ma and cut/pasting lines by hand!

Hokkaido-only!!! (at 札幌) https://www.instagram.com/p/B2_48h4gCto/?igshid=egsfdysx7qir

Successful boot to BIOS/UEFI. The suspense during startup was killing me. #hackintosh #quakerOats https://www.instagram.com/p/BmnYlBQHX8X/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=fvtfdhzy4j38

Gittin' 'er dun. 🤓 #hackintosh #watercooled https://www.instagram.com/p/Bmmq2R3H_HA/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=181ahc1ryfh0y

Banana Milk water... Should I...? (at Shinjuku)

The legendary Summer Sounds is back, this time open-air on the rooftop of 109 Men's just a literal hop from Shibuya station. Good drinks, good peeps, good grooves -- always! Hit me up for discount presales. (at 109 men's 渋谷)

...where the gyoza were the size of bananas. #notevenkidding