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EASE OF USE TOOLS
Move Sprites tool
This tool was something I created while working on Hiveswap. A lot of my job was implementing art into Unity for the artists. This was a tool I created after realizing that the artists turned in pieces of art in these sections, and that they were always the same dimensions. After a few times of manually placing these sprites I realized it would be much simper to automate this process. This tool makes a list of selections and arranges them based on their height and width right next to each other. This ended up making setting these scenes up way easier for me.
Sort Order tool
This tool was something specifically requested by the artist on Hiveswap. The artists created some assets that needed to be in front of the character, but behind the character if the character walked behind the object. In order to do this I simply check for the position of the item and it's sorting order and if the character is lower on the y-axis, I change the sorting order to be in front or behind the item's sorting order.
RIGGING TOOLS
Auto-Rig tool for Bipeds
This py-mel tool was created as a way to automate the process of rigging a bi-ped character. The tool allow for different features to be added, and can be editted for many different uses. Demonstrated here is the basic run through of how the tool works. The left side of the skeleton must be placed manually, to ensure accuracy. Then the tool mirrors the joints to the right side, and renames them. Then the locations of the joints are found, and controls are made, placed, grouped and renamed. Finally ik's and foot roll joints are placed. All features and tool done by Anastasia Kinzel.
Automated Animation Export tool
This tool, also created in py-mel. It's a tool that I could hand off to the animator to help ensure they set up their project correctly. The file is named by the animator, saved to the proper location, within the file directory, and is saved with the prefix "ANIM_". Then a reference of the proper rig can be imported. The animator can do the animations they need to . Then they can input the frames they need to export. For example, the file was saved as "ANIM_walk", and the walk aniamtion is from frame 1-100. The animator would input 1-100 and the animation would be baked from frames 1-100. Then everything except the joints will be deleted and the joints will be exported as an .fbx file, with the same name, and put in the same directory.
Group and rename utility tool
Archer Model by Jacob Hottle, jacobhottle.dunked.com.
This python tool is one that is not extremely exciting, but really useful nonetheless. It's a tool that automatically groups and renames the control selected. So, as you create your nurbs curves controls for your rig you can use this tool to quickly group and rename them. That way you can adjust the orientation of the groups as you go. I use this tool on every rig I make and it saves a lot of time.
Nurbs curves recolor utility tool
Archer Model by Jacob Hottle, jacobhottle.dunked.com.​
This python tool is another that I use on every rig I create. The tool is just to recolor the nurbs curves selected. It doesn't seem too exciting, but as anyone who has had to do this manually knows, it is a very tedious and time consuming process. The nice feature of this tool is that you can select multiple curves at once and recolor them all. Along with this if you have multiple curves on your control it does recolor all portions of it.
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