When the user draws a sketch, the curve information is saved into a FigureSketch object. It's mostly just arrays of points (one for the spine, one for each long bone, etc), but it also has the functionality of calculating from these curves, the starting value for the FigureDataNode. Unlike the FigureSketch object, the FigureDataNode is a Maya node which persists after the QT Tablet Application is closed.
Upon closing the tablet window, the plug-in generates a mesh (a cube, for now - it will be .ma loading for figures). I need to link the outputs of the FigureDataNode to the inputs of the mesh (say FigureDataNode.outHeight -> Mesh.scaleY). C++ is being whiny, but I can do it in MEL easy as pie, which is where this picture comes from. Worst comes to worse, I hack the connection together with MGlocbal::executeCommand():
I have also done some work figuring out what "rules" and assumptions we can make to derive parameters from the sketch. Most importantly, it assumes we are generating humanoid figures - bipedal, bilateral, head-abdomen-thorax things. These calculations and assumptions are made in the FigureSketch class before it puts these values into the FigureDataNode.
The next challenge is defining body parts for section stylization. The user can easily transition between colors and sketch modes (spine, long, flat) in the QT Window. However, I am trying to think of how to have these correspond to areas on a single mesh in Maya (areas on one mesh being very different and entirely more difficult than just the entire mesh). The initial reaction was to use Quick Select Sets, but that may not be possible in the API. However, I think it's possible in MEL. The alternative would be creating a C++ structure which ran sort of in parrallel to the Maya Quick Select Set - taking in each vertex location, applying the transformations, and then changing the vertex locations again.
Rage.
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