JOINT TOOL WINDOW – OVERVIEW

The Joint Tool window makes creating, editing and orientating joints easy.

A powerful and easy to use interface, all in one central location.

The window adds features that are missing in Maya such as user-friendly controls for managing world up and automatic alignment for limbs, fingers, and other joint chains.

Joint orientation has never been easier.

Our Plane Orient feature is useful for limbs, fingers and more.

Easily customize the up direction with the Up Arrow control.

Inverting the aim direction is not possible in Maya.

Easily mark center pivots from selections or toggle Maya’s Snap To Projected Center.

This feature will be available from Zoo 2.8.1, in previous versions, Mark Center Pivot is found in the Rigging Misc UI .

Mark Center Pivots is handy for snapping joints to the center of meshes.

The Joint Tool Window also efficiently handle tasks such as creating, mirroring, display, and more across multiple joint selections with Zoo Tool’s Joint Tool.

Easily modify joint attribute settings across a large number of joints.

THE PROBLEM

Navigating and understanding Maya’s many joint windows can be a challenging task, and even so important features notably absent.

Some other functions are only accessible by committing specific lines of code to memory.

The user interface of the Joint system in general complex and confusing for users.

Maya’s multiple windows as shown below, are convoluted.

Maya’s Create Joint Window is not necessary.

Maya’s joint global scale is burried in the display menu.

The Joint Orient window is complex and missing features.

Maya’s Mirror Joint Window.

Per joint attribute settings are found in the Attribute Editor.

The Attribute Spreadsheet allows you to modify many joint settings.

Edit Local Rotation Axis hidden in the top shelf under a right-click menu.

THE SOLUTION

The Joint Tool Window streamlines joint orientation tasks while introducing additional capabilities that are absent in Maya.

Our simple compact UI is easy to use and powerful.

Zoo Tools Joint Tool in the advanced mode solves multiple windows.

Features include:

– Compact, dockable window catering to all joint needs.
– Easy to use, intuitive settings.
– Compact and Advanced UI modes.
– Joint creation button.
– Comprehensive Joint Orientation settings.
– Interactive World Up Arrow with user-adjustable rotation.
– Automatic plane snap control enabling coplanar orientation for limbs, fingers, etc.
– Feature to align joints to their parent.
– Aim joints in negative axis directions.
– Match center pivot to selection.
– Volume Snap (Snap to Projected Center) toggle.
– Option to enter and exit local rotation edit mode.
– One click Zero Rotation Axis functionality.
– User friendly edit “local rotation axis” buttons.
– Capability to display and hide the “local rotation axis”.
– Batch modification feature for multiple selected joints.
– Adjust joint global display size and local radius.
– Mirror joint settings.
– Ability to modify scale compensation across many joints.

USING THE TOOL

There are many features in the Joint Tool Window, please see our detailed tooltips as you hover over each button or UI element for instructions.

Tooltips can be switched on in each UI under the Z Icon (top left) > Toggle Tooltips

Hover over buttons and UI elements for full instructions.