Thursday, April 9, 2009

BG v3.3.04 Beta Release!!

Wha wha WHAT!?!! A new release!?!?! Yes, I am happy to say that Basic Guy is ready for you all to animate. He's currently still in "Beta" (meaning, that I'm only posting this in limited places), but he should be good to go.

As I mentioned in my previous post, he is currently limited to Maya UNLIMITED users only (Maya v7.0+). However, I'm still looking into ways to get all the "bendy" limb stuff supported when using Maya Complete. So, I apologize to those of you that are not able to use this latest release. But, by the poll results, that isn't that many of you...

Here is a list of v3.0.04 changes:

1) uv's and a generic texture (I included the Photoshop files for those of you that want to edit further). The one there is pretty "basic"... but, should get you all started.
2) I edited his ability to make an "OO" shape some. I received quite a few comments that it was really hard to get that shape. Hopefully now, it's easier...
3) Bendy limbs (select the BGCtrl_Switchers to turn them on)
4) Different way of squashing and stretching the head (select the "BGCtrl_Head" and turn on "SS_Vis")

Known Limitations:

1) You CANNOT change the name of the controls (i.e. reference the file). This will make the fk/ik matching not work (I'm looking into ways to fix this).
2) Settings work best when set to "centimeter"
3) MAYA UNLIMITED only (I'm looking into ways to fix this).

Here is where you can find him:
Zip file
or
7-Zip file: smaller file size

Anyway, that's about it. Sorry once again to those of you that are Maya Complete users. But, I am looking into other solutions for the bendy limbs. I may just take the bendy stuff out for now so that you all can at least have the rest of the "new" features...

Cheers and happy animating!
Tim

6 comments:

Tecsun Yeep said...

Hi Tim, thanks for releasing such an awesome rigs. This is really useful for somebody like me who want to start learning animation, like it so much! ^^

Chickens and Beandip said...

Hey do you still have the original version of this character without the facial rig. I really like using that one for body mechanics animation. It allowed for simple emotion but never distracted from the main body animation. If you don't that cool. Thanks alot.

Tim said...

Thanks Tescum! Glad you like animating him!

Chickens and Beandip:
here is a link to the last version where you could turn the face off:
http://www.timoberlander.com/Downloads/Characters/Basic_Guy_v2.5.8_Maya8.rar


enjoy!
Tim

Unknown said...

Hey, Tim. I love Basic Guy and I can't wait to try version 3. I was wondering if there are any instructions as to setting up the custom scripts to run properly. Where is the best place to put the icons and the script? Is it better to put it in the common scripts folder or just "source" or "run" the script from the script editor?
Thx.

Tim said...

Hey Michael,
Thanks for the nice words! I hope that you enjoy the latest release too!

As for install directions, there should be a read me doc in the download file. But, if for whatever reason you don't see or have that I'll show you below:

Install Notes (Do this before you launch Maya):

1) Copy the bgWin.mel to:
C:\Documents and Settings\user\Documents\maya\version\scripts

2) Copy the individual icons to:
C:\Documents and Settings\user\Documents\maya\version\prefs\icons

3) Copy the shelf_BasicGuy.mel to:
C:\Documents and Settings\user\Documents\maya\version\prefs\shelves

Then, when you have Maya open, you can just type bgWin; into the command line and it should pop the GUI open.

Hope that helps! Cheers and thanks again
Tim

Unknown said...

Tim,
Thanks. Got it working now.
The version 3 download does have the readme file but I didn't see one in the version 2.5.8 download.