Tag: code

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[PySide Qt] :: Builder Window Story #1

Modular Rig Build

Building tools is always fun because of how much over-lap of tools are needed to support the main tool. I figured that it’s time to redesign my current builder with a new one hence this project is born.

When I design a complex window, I find that it’s always a good practice to break up the widgets into separate functions. In this case, my window only contains two widgets, ModuleForm and InformationForm, and PySide makes things easier in combining modules:

class MainWindow(QtWidgets.QMainWindow):
    HEIGHT = 400
    WIDTH = 400
    INFORMATION = {}

    module_form = None
    information_form = None
    # the main build blue-print to construct
    # every time a module is added to module form, this updates the blueprint dictionary

    def __init__(self, parent=None):
        super(MainWindow, self).__init__(parent)

        # add the widgets to the layouts.
        self.main_widget = QtWidgets.QWidget(self)
        self.setSizePolicy(QtWidgets.QSizePolicy.Expanding, QtWidgets.QSizePolicy.Expanding)
        self.main_layout = QtWidgets.QHBoxLayout(self)

        # add the two widgets to the main layout
        horizontal_split = QtWidgets.QSplitter(QtCore.Qt.Horizontal)
        self.main_layout.addWidget(horizontal_split)

        self.module_form = ModuleForm(parent=self)
        self.information_form = InformationForm(parent=self)

        horizontal_split.addWidget(self.module_form)
        horizontal_split.addWidget(self.information_form)

As you can guess the ModuleForm are where each rig module class is stored; and when that is selected, it triggers an InformationForm refresh, showing the necessary information for that module, and it works like so:

PySide Widgets' Relationship
PySide Relationships

This project is still in its infancy, I still need to add a blueprint file feature that saves and loads the module configuration as per rig specifications. My main purpose of this project is so that I can build creature rigs cleanly — including creature face work, I find that upkeep for creating faces is high, so having a modular based builder keeps file scenes nice and tidy.

I am not worried about the aesthetics of the tool for now, just its modular utility:

Modular Rig Build
Each module is responsible for each piece of rig.

As I can see, PySide offers much flexibility with UI tool design, for example, I found out that you can add separate widgets to a QListWidgetItem like so:

    @add_module_decorator
    def add_module(self, *args):
        """
        adds the module
        :param args:
        :return:
        """
        module_name = args[0]
        item = QtWidgets.QListWidgetItem()
        widget = ModuleWidget(module_name=module_name, list_widget=self.module_form.list, item=item, parent=self)
        item.setSizeHint(widget.sizeHint())

        # add a widget to the list
        self.module_form.list.addItem(item)
        self.module_form.list.setItemWidget(item, widget)
        return widget

And that QListWidgetItem contains a Widget with QLabel attached with a colored QtGui.QPixmap which can be changed just by re-assigning a different QtGui.QPixmap by using these two lines of code:

    def change_status(self, color="green"):
        """
        Change the status of the widget to "built"
        """
        self.q_pix = QtGui.QPixmap(buttons[color])
        self.icon.setPixmap(self.q_pix)

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[OpenMaya] :: MPxLocator Python 2.0 Plugin

Okay following the previous vector posts, I decided to plunge ahead and create a plugin that capitalizes on that knowledge.

Previously, in OpenMaya 1.0, the MPxLocator has been defined by using the draw method by using Open Graphics Library (OpenGL) functions. Maya’s architecture has updated a new method, and I used the OpenMaya.MUIDrawManager class method to do the drawings, making things straight forward. Here, I draw a circle, rectangle and a line; I spent way too much time figuring out the nuances of this plugin.

At first, finding out which MPxLocator examples file work right out of the box has been an issue, except finally, I found this one: uiDrawManager/uiDrawManager.cpp

In addition to finding out how the 2.0 plugins work, I also wanted to learn a bit more on reflection math, and I put that to use in this plugin:

R = 2(N * L) * N – L

Which using Maya’s Python code looks like this:

# define normal vector at origin
normal = OpenMaya.MVector(0.0, 1.0, 0.0)

# get opposing vector through double cross product
opposing_vector = normal * (2 * (normal * input_point))
opposing_vector -= input_point

# now multiply it by the scalar value
opposing_vector *= scale
if as_vector:
   return opposing_vector
else:
   return opposing_vector.x, opposing_vector.y, opposing_vector.z

Maya viewport handles drawing by using the DrawManager, like this:

A circle:

        radius = 2.0
        is_filled = True
        position = OpenMaya.MPoint(0, 0, 0)
        normal = OpenMaya.MVector(0, 1, 0)
        drawManager.beginDrawable()
        drawManager.beginDrawInXray()
        drawManager.setLineWidth(line_width)
        drawManager.setLineStyle(drawManager.kSolid)
        drawManager.setColor(OpenMaya.MColor(plane_color))
        drawManager.circle(position, normal, radius, is_filled)
        drawManager.endDrawInXray()
        drawManager.endDrawable()

A rectangle:

        rect_scale_x = 1.0
        rect_scale_y = 1.0
        is_filled = False
        position = OpenMaya.MPoint(0, 0, 0)
        normal = OpenMaya.MVector(0, 0, 1)
        up = OpenMaya.MVector(0, 1, 0)
        drawManager.beginDrawable()
        drawManager.setLineWidth(line_width)
        drawManager.setLineStyle(drawManager.kSolid)
        drawManager.setColor(OpenMaya.MColor(plane_color))
        # For 3d rectangle, the up vector should not be parallel with the normal vector.
        drawManager.rect(position, normal, up, rect_scale_x, rect_scale_y, is_filled)
        drawManager.endDrawable()

A line:

        drawManager.beginDrawable()
        drawManager.setLineWidth(line_width)
        drawManager.setLineStyle(drawManager.kSolid)
        drawManager.setColor(OpenMaya.MColor(plane_color))
        drawManager.line(OpenMaya.MPoint(0, -1, 0), OpenMaya.MPoint(0, 1, 0))
        drawManager.endDrawable()

The reason why I dived into Maya’s Viewport drawing is because I was following Chad Vernon’s excellent C++ series, and his MPxLocator example no longer works in the current Maya 2020 version. The full working code can be found at my GitHub page:

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[OpenMaya] :: Iteration

As a tools developoer, it is in my best interest to make the code run fast, and if there is anything in Maya that makes things go fast, it’s OpenMaya:

Below is an example of how OpenMaya iterates a scene to find all the AnimCurve nodes connected to an object in Maya.:

# import maya modules
from maya import OpenMaya as om

def get_connected_nodes(object_name="", find_node_type=om.MFn.kAnimCurve):
    """
    get connected nodes from node provided.
    :param object_name: <str> string object to use for searching from.
    :param find_node_type: <om.MFn> kObjectName type to find.
    """
    node = get_m_obj(object_name)
    dag_iter = om.MItDependencyGraph(
        node,
        om.MItDependencyGraph.kUpstream,
        om.MItDependencyGraph.kPlugLevel)
    dag_iter.reset()

    found_nodes = []
    while not dag_iter.isDone():
        cur_item = dag_iter.currentItem()
        if cur_item.hasFn(find_node_type):
            found_nodes.append(cur_item)
        dag_iter.next()
    return found_nodes

Another way to go about doing this business is creating a generator object by introducing yield, in the same code, we just remove the return statement:

# import maya modules
from maya import OpenMaya as om

def get_connected_nodes_gen(object_name="", find_node_type=om.MFn.kAnimCurve):
    """
    nodes generator.
    :param object_name: <str> string object to use for searching from.
    :param find_node_type: <om.MFn> kObjectName type to find.
    """
    node = get_m_obj(object_name)
    dag_iter = om.MItDependencyGraph(
        node,
        om.MItDependencyGraph.kUpstream,
        om.MItDependencyGraph.kPlugLevel)
    dag_iter.reset()

    while not dag_iter.isDone():
        cur_item = dag_iter.currentItem()
        if cur_item.hasFn(find_node_type):
            yield cur_item
        dag_iter.next()

We can test the speed of the code by utilizing the cProfile module:

# import maya modules
from maya import OpenMaya as om

# import local modules 
import cProfile 

# define variables
anim_key_nodes = object_utils.get_connected_nodes_gen('pCube1') 

# run profiler 
cProfile.run("for n in anim_key_nodes: print n") 

<...> 
<...>
<maya.OpenMaya.MObject; proxy of <Swig Object of type 'MObject *' at 0x000002776FB30B40> >
<maya.OpenMaya.MObject; proxy of <Swig Object of type 'MObject *' at 0x000002776FB306C0> >

213 function calls in 0.021 seconds

Ordered by: standard name

ncalls tottime percall cumtime percall filename:lineno(function)
1 0.020 0.020 0.021 0.021 <string>:1(<module>)
1 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 OpenMaya.py:1539(__init__)
1 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 OpenMaya.py:7370(__init__)
14 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 OpenMaya.py:84(_swig_repr)
1 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 OpenMaya.py:9666(__init__)
15 0.000 0.000 0.001 0.000 object_utils.py:60(get_connected_nodes_gen)
1 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 object_utils.py:80(get_m_obj)
42 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 {maya._OpenMaya.MItDependencyGraph_currentItem}
43 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 {maya._OpenMaya.MItDependencyGraph_isDone}
42 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 {maya._OpenMaya.MItDependencyGraph_next}
1 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 {maya._OpenMaya.MItDependencyGraph_reset}
1 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 {maya._OpenMaya.MItDependencyGraph_swiginit}
42 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 {maya._OpenMaya.MObject_hasFn}
1 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 {maya._OpenMaya.MObject_swiginit}
1 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 {maya._OpenMaya.MSelectionList_add}
1 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 {maya._OpenMaya.MSelectionList_getDependNode}
1 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 {maya._OpenMaya.MSelectionList_swiginit}
1 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 {maya._OpenMaya.new_MItDependencyGraph}
1 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 {maya._OpenMaya.new_MObject}
1 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 {maya._OpenMaya.new_MSelectionList}
1 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 {method 'disable' of '_lsprof.Profiler' objects}

And there we have it, we have covered OpenMaya iteration by traversing the node connections and finding the corresponding node (in this case the AnimCurve node), and a python generator to show the similarities between a loop and a generator. And yes, you can do the similar basic maya command, but it’s not as fun:

# import maya modules
from maya import cmds

def get_connected_anim(object_name=""):
    """
    get connected nodes from node provided.
    :param object_name: <str> string object to use for searching from.
    :param find_node_type: <om.MFn> kObjectName type to find.
    """
    anim_c = cmds.listConnections(object_name, s=1, d=0, type='animCurve')
    anim_b = cmds.listConnections(object_name, s=1, d=0, type='blendWeighted')
    anim_curves = []
    if not anim_c and anim_b:
        for blend_node in anim_b:
            anim_curves.extend(cmds.listConnections(blend_node, s=1, d=0, type='animCurve'))
        return anim_curves
    else:
        return anim_c

 ...
animCurveUL4
animCurveUL5
animCurveUL8
animCurveUL10
animCurveUL12

         2 function calls in 0.013 seconds
Ordered by: standard name
 ncalls  tottime  percall  cumtime  percall filename:lineno(function)
         1    0.013    0.013    0.013    0.013 :1()
         1    0.000    0.000    0.000    0.000 {method 'disable' of '_lsprof.Profiler' objects}

Yes this seems like regular maya commands are faster, but you’ve got to remember, this is just a couple of nodes. What if you had to loop through a large set of vertices on a piece of geometry? I’ve created two functions: One loops through vertices by using standard maya cmds, the other using OpenMaya MItMeshVertex:

def get_mesh_points(object_name):
    """
    Mesh points iterator.
    :param object_name: <str> object name.
    :return: <list> vertex positions
    """
    mesh_fn, mesh_ob, mesh_dag = get_mesh_fn(object_name)
    mesh_it = om.MItMeshVertex(mesh_ob)
    mesh_vertexes = []
    print("[Number of Vertices] :: {}".format(mesh_fn.numVertices()))
    while not mesh_it.isDone():
        mesh_vertexes.append(mesh_it.position())
        mesh_it.next()
    return mesh_vertexes


def get_mesh_points_cmds(object_name):
    """
    Mesh points iterator.
    :param object_name:  <str> object name. 
    :return: <list> vertex positions 
    """
    mesh_vertices = cmds.ls(object_name + '.vtx[*]', flatten=1)
    print("[Number of Vertices] :: {}".format(len(mesh_vertices)))
    nums = []
    for i in mesh_vertices:
        nums.append(i)
    return nums

Now let’s see how cProfiler works on them both by iterating through 429510 vertices mesh:

 # run cmdsiterator 
cProfile.run("object_utils.get_mesh_points_cmds('Emmanuel_Guevarra_Ian_McKellen_medres:Group2')")
 [Number of Vertices] :: 429510
          429516 function calls in 1.629 seconds
 Ordered by: standard name
 ncalls  tottime  percall  cumtime  percall filename:lineno(function)
         1    0.019    0.019    1.629    1.629 :1()
         1    0.038    0.038    1.609    1.609 object_utils.py:128(get_mesh_points_cmds)
         1    1.548    1.548    1.548    1.548 {built-in method ls}
         1    0.000    0.000    0.000    0.000 {len}
    429510    0.023    0.000    0.023    0.000 {method 'append' of 'list' objects}
         1    0.000    0.000    0.000    0.000 {method 'disable' of '_lsprof.Profiler' objects}
         1    0.000    0.000    0.000    0.000 {method 'format' of 'str' objects}
# run OpenMaya iterator
cProfile.run("object_utils.get_mesh_points('Emmanuel_Guevarra_Ian_McKellen_medres:Group2')")
 [Number of Vertices] :: 429510
          1718065 function calls in 0.860 seconds
 Ordered by: standard name
 ncalls  tottime  percall  cumtime  percall filename:lineno(function)
         1    0.059    0.059    0.860    0.860 :1()
         1    0.000    0.000    0.000    0.000 OpenMaya.py:2790(init)
         1    0.000    0.000    0.000    0.000 OpenMaya.py:5304(init)
         1    0.000    0.000    0.000    0.000 OpenMaya.py:7701(init)
         1    0.000    0.000    0.000    0.000 OpenMaya.py:9666(init)
         1    0.313    0.313    0.801    0.801 object_utils.py:112(get_mesh_points)
         1    0.000    0.000    0.000    0.000 object_utils.py:142(get_mesh_fn)
         1    0.000    0.000    0.000    0.000 {isinstance}
         1    0.000    0.000    0.000    0.000 {maya._OpenMaya.MDagPath_extendToShapeDirectlyBelow}
         1    0.000    0.000    0.000    0.000 {maya._OpenMaya.MDagPath_node}
         1    0.000    0.000    0.000    0.000 {maya._OpenMaya.MDagPath_swiginit}
         1    0.000    0.000    0.000    0.000 {maya._OpenMaya.MFnMesh_numVertices}
         1    0.000    0.000    0.000    0.000 {maya._OpenMaya.MFnMesh_swiginit}
    429511    0.030    0.000    0.030    0.000 {maya._OpenMaya.MItMeshVertex_isDone}
    429510    0.035    0.000    0.035    0.000 {maya._OpenMaya.MItMeshVertex_next}
    429510    0.393    0.000    0.393    0.000 {maya._OpenMaya.MItMeshVertex_position}
         1    0.000    0.000    0.000    0.000 {maya._OpenMaya.MItMeshVertex_swiginit}
         1    0.000    0.000    0.000    0.000 {maya._OpenMaya.MObject_hasFn}
         1    0.000    0.000    0.000    0.000 {maya._OpenMaya.MSelectionList_add}
         1    0.000    0.000    0.000    0.000 {maya._OpenMaya.MSelectionList_getDagPath}
         1    0.000    0.000    0.000    0.000 {maya._OpenMaya.MSelectionList_swiginit}
         1    0.000    0.000    0.000    0.000 {maya._OpenMaya.new_MDagPath}
         1    0.000    0.000    0.000    0.000 {maya._OpenMaya.new_MFnMesh}
         1    0.000    0.000    0.000    0.000 {maya._OpenMaya.new_MItMeshVertex}
         1    0.000    0.000    0.000    0.000 {maya._OpenMaya.new_MSelectionList}
    429510    0.030    0.000    0.030    0.000 {method 'append' of 'list' objects}
         1    0.000    0.000    0.000    0.000 {method 'disable' of '_lsprof.Profiler' objects}
         1    0.000    0.000    0.000    0.000 {method 'format' of 'str' objects}

for cmds and OpenMaya, 1.629 seconds and 0.860 seconds respectively.