Mesh Utilities

The purpose of the following methods is to provide:

• a simple mechanism for building meshes from a given DNA file path

• return and print information about the meshes contained in the DNA file

Importing

from dna_viewer import DNA, Config, build_meshes

DNA_PATH_ADA = f"{ROOT_DIR}/data/dna_files/Ada.dna"
DNA_PATH_TARO = f"{ROOT_DIR}/data/dna_files/Taro.dna"

Create Config Instance(Config)

Create a configuration object that will be used in the mesh building process.

config = Config(
    add_joints=True,
    add_blend_shapes=True,
    add_skin_cluster=True,
    add_ctrl_attributes_on_root_joint=True,
    add_animated_map_attributes_on_root_joint=True,
    lod_filter=[0, 1],
    mesh_filter=["head"],
)

These are just some attributes of Config class:

• add_joints: bool - A flag representing if joints should be added, defaults to True.

• add_blend_shapes: bool - A flag representing if blendshapes should be added, defaults to True.

• add_skin_cluster: bool - A flag representing if skin clusters should be added, defaults to True.

• add_ctrl_attributes_on_root_joint: bool - A flag representing if control attributes should be added to the root joint as attributes, defaults to False. They are used as animation curves for Rig Logic inputs in the engine.

• add_animated_map_attributes_on_root_joint: bool - A flag representing if animated map attributes should be added to the root joint as attributes, defaults to True. They are used as animation curves for animated maps in the engine.

IMPORTANT: Some combinations of flag values can lead to an unusable rig or disable some features!

Building the meshes (build_meshes)

Used for building rig elements (joints, meshes, blendshapes and skin clusters) without Rig Logic. It returns long names of meshes that have been added to the scene.

config = Config(
    add_joints=True,
    add_blend_shapes=True,
    add_skin_cluster=True,
    add_ctrl_attributes_on_root_joint=True,
    add_animated_map_attributes_on_root_joint=True,
    lod_filter=[0, 1],
    mesh_filter=["head"],
)
mesh_names = build_meshes(
    dna=dna_ada,
    config=config
)

This uses the following parameters:

• dna: DNA - Instance of DNA got with DNA.

• config: Config - Instance of configuration.

mesh_names = build_meshes(dna=dna_ada)

Which defaults to adding all the meshes within the DNA file.

Example

Important: The environment setup provided above needs to be executed before running this example.

from dna_viewer import DNA, Config, build_meshes

# if you use Maya, use absolute path
ROOT_DIR = f"{ospath.dirname(ospath.abspath(__file__))}/..".replace("\\", "/")
# Sets DNA file path
DNA_PATH_ADA = f"{ROOT_DIR}/data/dna_files/Ada.dna"
dna_ada = DNA(DNA_PATH_ADA)

# Starts the mesh build process with all the default values
build_meshes(dna=dna_ada)

# Creates the options to be passed in `build_meshes`
config = Config(
    add_joints=True,
    add_blend_shapes=True,
    add_skin_cluster=True,
    add_ctrl_attributes_on_root_joint=True,
    add_animated_map_attributes_on_root_joint=True,
    lod_filter=[0, 1],
    mesh_filter=["head"],
)

# Starts the mesh building process with the provided parameters
# In this case it will create every mesh contained in LODs 0 and 1 with 'head` in it's name,
build_meshes(
    dna=dna_ada,
    config=config,
)