¶Mirror

The mirroring script is a Python script that allows the transfer of the AdonisFX muscle setup of an asset from one side to the other. For example, a user can complete the muscle rig for the left side of an asset and thanks to this script mirror the setup quickly and efficiently to the right side.

Currently, the script allows to mirror:

• AdnMuscle deformers, including their configurations, paintable maps, geometry targets, and connections to locators.​
• The three types of AdonisFX locators (i.e. AdnLocatorPosition, AdnLocatorDistance, and AdnLocatorRotation).
• The three types of AdonisFX sensors (i.e. AdnSensorPosition, AdnSensorDistance, and AdnSensorRotation).
• AdnActivation nodes, including their input and output connections.

Please, check this section to know more about the current limitations.

¶Requirements

In order to use the mirroring script, the rig must meet the following requirements to ensure a successful transfer of the muscle setup:

• A completed setup on one side: One side of the rig (either left or right) must be fully configured. This completed side will serve as the source, while the opposite side will be the destination for the mirrored setup.

• Consistent naming convention: All objects involved in the mirroring process (including geometries, muscle deformers, locators, sensors, activation nodes and any other attachment nodes like rig joints) must follow a naming convention based on prefixes or suffixes (see Figure 1). This allows the tool to differentiate between left and right-side entities. Naming conventions can use:

  • Prefixes: e.g., "L_" and "R_" or "l_" and "r_".
  • Suffixes: e.g., "_L" and "_R" or "_l" and "_r".

• Symmetric muscle topology: The left and right muscles must have identical topology. This means that:

  • The vertex count must be the same on both sides.
  • The vertex IDs of a muscle (e.g., "L_biceps") must match those of its counterpart (e.g., "R_biceps").

  This ensures that paintable maps and deformer weights are transferred accurately during the mirroring process.

¶How To Use

1. Open a scene that fulfills the requirements listed previously.

2. Select all geometries from the source side that have an AdnMuscle deformer applied and need to be mirrored.

3. Add to the selection all the AdonisFX locators from the same source side that need to be mirrored. Note that sensors and activation nodes (as not being DAG objects) do not need to be added to the selection. The Mirror Tool will automatically handle their mirroring.

4. Run the following command in a Python Script tab.

from adn.scripts.maya import mirror
report_data = {"errors": [], "warnings": []}
result = mirror.apply_mirror(left_convention="L_*", right_convention="R_*", report_data=report_data)

5. Depending on the complexity of the rig, this process might take a few seconds to compute. The result returned by the function will be True if there were any muscles or locators properly mirrored, and False if nothing was mirrored (e.g. if the selection was empty).

6. If something goes wrong during the execution, error and warning messages will be added to the report_data dictionary. Execute the following code to log all the information in the terminal for troubleshooting.

import logging
for err in report_data["errors"]:
    logging.error(err)
for warn in report_data["warnings"]:
    logging.warning(warn)

¶Limitations

• The naming convention does not allow placing the side identifier at the middle of the name (e.g. biceps_L_muscle).
• The mirroring logic does not allow to mirror intermediate nodes between the AdnActivation and the AdnMuscle deformer.