Advanced Spline Solver (medulla)

Maya is great in allowing people to connect nodes together and build amazing rigs.
Even though, I always thought that an integrated solution, providing an IK/FK system with twisting and bending would be great. Thus I came up with the idea of this solver which will feature:

> spline IK (shown in this video)
> stretch and squash (shown in this video)
> twist (shown in this video)
> adjustable twist center (shown in this video)
> multipoint twist
> end joint snap
> implicit two-joints matching FK/IK
> adjustable "elbow" binding

I'll soon post more videos showing other features...

Advanced Spline Solver (Medulla) from Marco Romeo on Vimeo.

SuperShaper - asymmetric blendShape plugin for Maya (C++ and Python)

I've enhanced the main algorithm for the SuperShaper. Now it is implemented in C++ and runs smoothly.
I've also added color feedback to better identify the splits.
Quite a big step forward compared to the first version I developed for the Ender's Game film.
In the video I show the plugin working on a simple face and also with a simple rig applied.

SuperShaper from Marco Romeo on Vimeo.

UV Blend Shape - Topology-independent blendshape for Maya(C++ Plugin)

This plugin comes quite handy when you want to transfer deformations between meshes with different topologies.
Imagine transferring blendshape targets between different characters or between two different levels of detail or when some small tweaks have to be made on top of a mesh, altering its topology. In all of these cases you'll want to have a tool like this :)

UV Blend Shape from Marco Romeo on Vimeo.

A long year...

It has been a long year, working on my PhD thesis and on the IMPART research project.
Big data is becoming a big issue for post-production companies and it was a lot of fun to collaborate on such an amazing project with huge partners like Digital Domain, Filmlight and the University of Surrey.

Now it's time to upload the things I've been doing in my spare time and for the Ender's Game film.

... 

SuperShaper - asymmetric blendShape plugin for Maya (Python)

Hi, this the SuperShaper, a Python plugin for Maya I developed some months ago.
Whit this plugin you can apply blend shapes in an asymmetric fashion.

Rather than manually create splits of left, center and right side of a target shape, just drop the complete target in the SuperShaper and it will allow you to select where to split the shape and the weights you want to assign for each split.

I'm currently looking forward to a C++ implementation to make it faster and smoother so... stay tuned!

Super Shaper - asymmetric blend-shape plugin for Maya (Python) from Marco Romeo on Vimeo.

Medulla features development - skinweight propagation

Continuing the development of more features for Medulla. This is a key feature that will allow changes to preserve skin weights while changing the skeletal structure. It works by propagating the previous weights through the new bones (more bones or less bones, it doesn't matter).

 Use cases examples:
 - When you find out that you need more joints for a part of the body that you have already weighted
 - When you want to paint the weights on a simple skeleton and then convert it to a more complex one
 - When you have already weighted a complex rig but you want a simpler one for real-time purposes
 
medulla - skinweight propagation - development preview from Marco Romeo on Vimeo.

Medulla - Rigging Toolset and Python API - first look

Currently working on a new Rigging API for Maya developed in Python: MEDULLA

Here you have a first video showing current status of development.

medulla - maya autorig system - work-in-progress preview 01 from Marco Romeo on Vimeo.