HIVE AUTORIGGER – PAGE CONTENTS

Overview
Training: Hive Introduction
Training: Guides Workflow
Training: Skin Workflow
Training: Pole Vectors, Spine, Fingers
Training: FK Chains
Compatibility
Road Map
Hive API
The Team

HIVE AUTORIGGER – OVERVIEW

We are excited to announce that the Hive Auto-Rigger is out of beta and is now available in Zoo Tools Pro !

Hive is easy-to-use and creates lightweight animation rigs packed with features.

Zoo Tools Pro , also includes many animation tools designed to complement our rigs.

Fully compatible with game engines, our Hive Export FBX tool can easily transfer your rigs to external software.

Hive is designed with studio pipelines in mind. It includes a robust Developer API, allowing users to easily upgrade or rebuild rigs within the user interface or via the command line. You can also customize your rig names to match your studio’s needs.

Your rigs will be vanilla Maya compatible, which means you can easily share them with others without the need for them to have Zoo Tools installed. However, to access enhanced features such as right-click menus and animator tools, a Zoo Tools installation is required.

Status: Hive has just come out of beta and is now in version one and production tested. For more details, please take a look at the information below.

Compatibility: Maya Commercial, Indie, and Edu. 2020-2024.

TRAINING VIDEO 01 – HIVE INTRODUCTION

The video above showcases the Hive Auto-Rigger and includes a demonstration of the Natalie Rig and its animator features.

Learn how to build, rebuild, and customize rigs with ease.

Studio Library , a free animation browser for Maya, is also featured.

Note: This video was created while Hive was still in beta and will be upgraded shortly.

TRAINING VIDEO 02 – FAQ – HIVE GUIDES WORKFLOW

Streamline your animation workflow with Hive’s intuitive guide placement features. In this video, learn tips and tricks for quickly pinning components, aligning and snapping guides, and utilizing pole vectors for precise control.

Discover how to move guides without affecting others and disable Hive’s right-click marking menus for even more efficiency.

Note: This video was created while Hive was still in beta and will be upgraded shortly.

TRAINING VIDEO 03 – FAQ – HIVE SKIN OVERVIEW

This video provides an overview of the process of binding skin to a Hive Rig using the appropriate deformation joints. Other skinning tips are also shared. For a more in-depth look at the skinning workflow, additional videos will be made available in the near future.

Topics covered include:

– Utilizing Hive’s Skeleton Deformation Skin Sets
– Default Skin Settings
– Zoo Marking Menus
– Zoo Skinning Toolbox
– Hive Export FBX Tool
– Utilizing third-party skinning tools
– Transferring Skin Weights to clothing
– Adding/Removing Joints
– Duplicating Original Mesh
– Transferring UVs to skinned meshes.

Note: This video was created while Hive was still in beta and will be upgraded shortly.

TRAINING VIDEO 04 – FAQ – POLE VECTORS, SPINE, FINGERS

In this video, we delve into the frequently asked questions related to guide placement.

Topics covered include the proper placement of feet, the use of pole vectors, the mechanics of the spline spine, and tips for orienting fingers and utilizing the auto-align attribute setting.

See more follow-up videos on the FK Chain component below.

Note: This video was created while Hive was still in beta and will be upgraded shortly.

TRAINING VIDEO 05 – FAQ – FK CHAINS & AUTO-ALIGN ORIENTS

In this video, we delve into the versatile FK Chain component. This powerful tool can be used for a wide range of applications, including clothing, appendages, hair, props, facial features, and more.

You will learn how to:

– Create FK Trees
– Orient FK Chains
– Utilize Auto-Align and Manual Orient settings
– Match Hive joints to standard Maya joints
– Position controls and assign colors
– Apply skinning to the mustache and mirror skinning
– Match Center Pivots.

See more videos below for rigging the brows and hat components.

Note: This video was created while Hive was still in beta and will be upgraded shortly.

TRAINING VIDEO 06 – FAQ – RIG BROW FK CHAINS

In this video, we’ll dive into the process of rigging toon-style eyebrows using Hive’s FK Chain component. We’ll cover techniques such as inverting axis orientations, using FK Trees, and precise skinning.

Additionally, we’ll showcase community tools like Braverabbit’s Smooth Skin and Skin Wrangler to enhance your workflow. By the end of the video, you’ll have the knowledge and skills needed to rig brows and save them as templates for reuse in the future.

Note: This video was created while Hive was still in beta and will be upgraded shortly.

TRAINING VIDEO 07 – FAQ – RIG & SKIN THE HAT

In this video, you’ll learn how to rig a hat using the FK component. Specifically, you’ll see how to properly orient the joints and disable auto-orientation to achieve the desired angle. The video covers the following key points:

– Using FK Trees for rigging the hat
– Aligning the controls with a Y-up orientation
– Utilizing Skin Wrangler and Braverabbit Smooth Weights for skinning

This concludes the Frequently Asked Questions video training series.

Note: This video was created while Hive was still in beta and will be upgraded shortly.

MORE HIVE TRAINING MATERIALS

We are currently in the process of releasing our Hive training materials. Additional videos will be available soon and will cover comprehensive character rigging and deformation methods.
 
 

HIVE COMPATIBILITY

Hive is designed to work with Maya 2020 and later versions, as it uses the new matrix attributes not available in previous versions of Maya. As a result, it is not compatible with Maya 2019 and earlier.

Zoo Tools Pro and our other tools are compatible with Linux, OSX, and Windows, and are functional on versions of Maya ranging from 2017 to 2023.

ROAD MAP

The Hive rigging system is currently in version one and is production ready and out of the Beta testing phase.

Upon completion of the Beta phase, we will continue to add additional animation tools, support for motion capture, and rigging components.
 
 
Alpha (complete 2.6.9 and below) COMPLETE
– (complete) FK (handles multi chain fk)
– (complete) FK Spine (with space switching)
– (complete) Simple Neck/Head
– (complete) IK/FK Arms with FK fingers, stretch and twists (bendy is part of Beta)
– (complete) IK/FK Legs rev foot, stretch and twists (bendy is part of Beta)

– (complete) Space Switching frame/key/bake
– (complete) Gimbal switching frame/key/bake
– (complete) IK/FK Switching frame/key/bake
– (complete) Game Engine FBX Export (Hive Export FBX Tool)
– (complete) Inbuilt reference model/skeleton. (Hive Reference Model Skeleton Tool)

– (complete) Fast intuitive builds
– (complete) Custom Joint Orients (stage one)
– (complete) Easy control curve modification, and controls save with templates
– (complete) Rebuilds while maintaining skin weights
– (complete) Build and match symmetry in guides mode.
– (complete) Duplicate components.
– (complete) Save templates saves modified proportions and controls.
– (complete) Dynamic Naming for engines and studios (Hive Naming Convention Tool)
 
 
Beta (2.7.0 and above) COMPLETE
– (complete) FBX Export Tool (Hive Export FBX Tool)
– (complete) Animation Mirror Tool
– (complete) Joints To Hive Guides
– (complete) Multi-branch FK chains
– (complete) Spline Spine
– (complete) Limb Lower/Upper Stretchy Update
– (complete) Bendy for arms and legs, soft ik
– (complete) Limb guides build improvements
– (complete) Quad Leg component
 
 
Official Release (Coming Soon)
– (coming shortly) Spline Tail component
– (coming soon) Spline Neck component
– (outstanding) More animation tooling.
– (outstanding) Mocap/support with other rig systems
– (outstanding) Facial components
– And more.

PRODUCTION USE & API

Hive is designed to be highly customizable and adaptable for production use. It features its own Hive API , built on top of Maya’s API 2, to facilitate extension and modification.

Our development efforts are currently focused on adding additional rigging and animation functionality to the platform.

If you are a technical director and are interested in extending Hive’s capabilities, please contact us at info@create3dcharacters.com.

Hive is built on Python and Open Maya 2, and provides the option to create rig parts using both cmds and pymel.

WE APPRECIATE YOUR SUPPORT

Thank you for your interest in our project. We hope you find it enjoyable.

Please note that this is only the beginning, as Hive is an extensive ongoing project designed to evolve and expand.

TEAM

David Sparrow:
– All backend code and code design
– Rig design

Andrew Silke:
– UI Design
– Workflows
– Rig & Animator direction

Special thanks to Keen Foong for his work on the Hive UI.