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Maya + Python + Arduino + Servo (Part 1) from Dan Thompson on Vimeo.
Maya + Python + Arduino + Servo (Part 2) from Dan Thompson on Vimeo.
I spend my days using a 3D animation package called Maya, and my nights building projects with Arduinos. Daniel Thompson is a visual effects artist who has combined Maya and an Arduino to drive a servomotor. My worlds just collided!
This post covers the scripts he used to do it. He has since built a Maya Python plug-in that is more accurate and can be keyframed. This is the really useful part, as it goes from being a very expensive 3D virtual knob to being a fully animateable animatronic system.
I'd love to see if he can get it working bi-directionally, so that the servo can act as a go-motion controller for Maya.
If you build an arm with servos at joint points, you could theoretically build an arm that you could position and have the servo positions read then translated into kinetics in maya. And then vice versa. Sort of combining stop motion characters with 3d characters.
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Yes, that would be pretty darn awesome, Riley. Using inverse kinematics in Maya, you could get some very cool animatronic posing and animation going on your servo arm, too.
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Hey Guys, Yep, IK, constraints and spline IK. There's nothing to say that you couldn't apply any rigging technique in Maya to create a robot puppet with a very sophisticated range of movements.
My first real milestone with this is to rig up a pair of legs and hips with all the bells an whistles that maya offers (like foot roll, knee twist and IK). Then who knows, it would be great to do a whole biped!
BTW. Thanks for posting this John!
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You bet, Dan, just be sure to let me know when you release the plug-in! Maybe we can start building real-world character companions in our offices here at Disney!
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Sounds awesome, I'll keep you posted!
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it's really a great project
BTW are you a graphic designer :p i can see the intuos3 grip pen :P
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